Copyright 1998 Devine Entertainment

We see events through the eyes of a young boy named Isaac Newton, who provides a voice-over narration and occasionally appears to speak directly into the camera. Young Isaac is no relation to the famous Isaac Newton, but his father, Humphrey Newton, was once the great man's protégé --and therein lies Young Isaac's tale.

The story begins in rural England with the birth, on Christmas Day, 1642, of the future Sir Isaac Newton. When he is three years old, he is left in the care of his grandparents when his widowed mother remarries and moves away. Isaac feels profoundly abandoned. By the time he is a teenager he has retreated into a solitary world of scientific study and invention. At age 18, he attends Cambridge University and, as the action jumps ahead, by age 35 is an esteemed mathematics professor there.

Cut to: Young Isaac's father Humphrey as a 15-year-old. In many ways he resembles professor Isaao--studious and inventive--but with one crucial difference: he is in tune with romance and rather fancies Clara, the niece of his school's headmaster. One day, the great Newton visits Humphrey's school, which he once attended himself. The headmaster introduces the two unrelated Newtons-professor Isaac and star pupil Humphrey. Newton agrees to hire Humphrey as his assistant. The headmaster also introduces Newton to his stepdaughter Catherine. Sparks of a sort fly. But whereas Humphrey is in tune with his feelings for Clara, Newton is befuddled by his attraction to Catherine.

Newton has been trying to explain mathematically the movement of the planets. On a walk in a nearby orchard one day, a falling apple provides him with an intellectual epiphany and the first inklings of the concept of gravity. Newton is eager to pursue the idea back in Cambridge. He persuades Humphrey's father to let the young man accompany him. Humphrey is loath to leave Clara, but the prospect of working with Newton prevails over his emotions. By now, Catherine has become emotionally attached to Newton. With their romantic destinies unresolved, the two men depart for Cambridge. There, work proceeds feverishly--Newton thinking aloud, Humphrey struggling to keep pace as his scribe. Newton's ideas are too revolutionary for many at the university, and his lectures are not well attended. Humphrey urges the great man to pursue a wider audience by publishing his findings, but Newton, ever fearful of rejection, demurs. Humphrey surreptitiously arranges for the Royal Society, England's most prestigious scientific organization, to invite Newton to speak.

Newton's address has an instant--and divisive--effect on the members of the Society. Professional jealousies are rampant. The likes of Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren dismiss Newton's laws of motion and universal gravitation, while astronomer Edmond Halley is cautiously intrigued. Halley, Wren and Hook are obsessed with learning more about Newton's work. They take Humphrey out for a night on the town, and in a weak moment Humphrey divulges more than he should. This leads to a wager: the first man to produce mathematical proof that the planets travel in an elliptical orbit wins a prize. Newton is working harder than ever, but for Humphrey, science has lost its lustre. He misses Clara terribly, and his father's illness provides him with the excuse to go home. Newton is left to his own devices-until Halley comes calling. He believes in Newton's work and wants to see him win the wager. At that moment, Hooke and Wren are stealing Newton's notes. But all is not lost. Newton realizes that Humphrey has inadvertently left with another, more complete set of notes. He and Halley elude Hooke and Wren and race by carriage back to Woolsthorpe. En route, Newton explains his now fully developed mathematical laws. If he can collect his notes, he will win the wager.

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"So, you're here to expound on your great discovery, Newton. Something about an apple. I can't wait to find the wormholes in it."

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"You may just as well give me the book now. I'm as close as this."