Mary Jo Kopechne was content working behind the scenes for the political candidates and causes in which she believed. In 1960, she was one of the many idealistic young Catholic college students who worked to get John Kennedy elected president. In 1968, Kopechne had eagerly been a part of Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, which was cut short by his assassination during the California primary. But due to her untimely death, Mary Jo Kopechne became a symbol of the thwarted presidential ambition of Senator Edward Kennedy and the lingering unanswered questions of her parents.

On the night of July 18, 1969, near Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard, Kopechne and Kennedy were among a group 12 people who had gathered for a barbecue following the Edgartown Regatta on Chappaquiddick Island. The two left the party together in a car Kennedy was driving. Not long after that, Kennedy drove the car off a bridge, got himself out...