Set during the Cold War period in the 1980s, The Americans is the story of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and their neighbor, Stan Beeman, an FBI Counterintelligence agent.

Earth has frozen over and the last surviving humans live on a giant train circling the globe, struggling to coexist amid the delicate balance onboard.

Based on the legendary rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford which began early in their careers, climaxing on the set of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and evolving into an Oscar vendetta.

After leaving prison, Marius takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his cellmate Pete. He moves in with Pete's long-estranged unsuspecting family and is roped into the family's bail bond business. He's a criminal taking down other criminals and, in the process, discovers the family life he never had.

Two KGB spies are posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. shortly after Ronald Reagan is elected President. The arranged marriage of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, who have two children—13-year-old Paige and 10-year-old Henry, who know nothing about their parents' true identity—grows more passionate and genuine by the day, but is constantly tested by the escalation of the Cold War and the intimate, dangerous and darkly funny relationships they must maintain with a network of spies and informants under their control.