In the first episode, Burns takes viewers on a journey through Sam Clemens' early days along the Mississippi River, to the small river town of Hannibal, Missouri. Clemens grows up, stumbling from adventure to adventure until he begins to evolve into Mark Twain, the humorist and writer who would revolutionize the way Americans viewed themselves and their language. The episode ends with the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel that has been banned in hundreds of libraries and schools across the country ever since.