The newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane one of the richest and most powerful men in America if not the world dies. A newspaperman digs into his past seeking the meaning of his enigmatic last word: "Rosebud." He finds evidence of a child torn away from his family to serve Mammon. Grown into manhood Charles Foster Kane becomes a newspaperman to indulge his idealism. He marries the niece of the man who will become President of the United States and gradually assumes more and more power while losing more and more of his soul. Kane''s money and power does not bring him happiness as he has lost his youthful idealism as has the America he is a symbol for.