In the 1910s, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a man of boundless intelligence that even the abject poverty of his home in Madras, India cannot crush. Eventually, his stellar intelligence in mathematics and his boundless confidence in both attract the attention of the noted British mathematics professor, G.H. Hardy, who invites him to further develop his computations at Trinity College at Cambridge. Forced to leave his young wife, Janaki, behind, Ramanujan finds himself in a land where both his largely intuitive mathematical theories and his cultural values run headlong into both the stringent academic requirements of his school and mentor and the prejudiced realities of a Britain heading into World War One. Facing this with a family back home determined to keep him from his wife and his own declining health, Ramanujan joins with Hardy in a mutual struggle that would define Ramanujan as one of India's greatest modern scholars who broke more than one barrier in his worlds.

Michael is a perpetual waster. He owes money to Perrier, a local thug. When two enforcers demand payment by nightfall, Michael does a burglary with two others but won't be paid till morning. All he has to do is stay away from the thugs until he can get the money then give it to Perrier. But the lads catch Michael and start to deliver a beating, but Brenda, Michael's suicidal neighbor, shoots one. Now they must run for their lives, accompanied by Jim, Michael's estranged father who claims to be dying and has come to reconcile with his son. Will any of the trio see the sun rise? And can Michael become enlightened, become a better man?