This three hour film examines the lives of the two men responsible for the concept and production of the Statue of Liberty - French sculptor Frederic Auguste Berthold (Frank Langella) and American coppersmith Jack Marchand (Chris Sarandon). Told as a dual story, the tale unfolds back and forth between each country. In France, Berthold gets a young model (Corrine Touzet) to pose nude for him to develop his sculpture. When he falls for her, his doting mother (Claire Bloom) opposes the relationship. Meanwhile in America, the Jewish Marchand faces bigotry but is taken by into a business by a good-willed Irishman (George Kennedy). There he weds the businessman's illiterate niece (Dana Delany) when she becomes pregnant, but carries on a platonic affair with a poetess (Carrie Fisher). Eventually Marchand & his employer, along with a slave (LeVar Burton) take on the construction of the actual monument.