在一个风景如画的英国乡村，自然学家查尔斯·达尔文（保罗·贝坦尼 Paul Bettany 饰）与妻女一起过着恬静的生活。他十岁的大女儿安妮对世界充满好奇，达尔文便教予她很多自然和科学知识，其中还包括他的进化论，然而在世人都相信上帝乃造物主的当时，女儿口中的进化论无疑是危险的，以至于令她被家庭教师体罚，就连达尔文深爱的妻子艾玛（詹妮弗·康纳利 Jennifer Connelly 饰）也无法认同他的观念和研究。更令达尔文受创的是，不久后，小安妮因生病早夭，唯一一个支持他完成学说的力量之源也黯淡了，整理《物种起源》手稿的工作变得犹如逆行荆棘，举步维艰……...
In 1963, eighteen-year-old Patricia Weir is kidnapped and brutally raped. Committed to putting her attacker, Ernesto Miranda, in prison, Patty's life is destroyed by America's legal system as she triggers a law that transforms the Nation....
The film tells the story of three people for a year: a son (Magimel) diagnosed with cancer, a mother (Deneuve) suffering from helplessness and a doctor (Cécile de France) to do her job: One year and four seasons for these three characters to deal with the disease, to tame it, and to understand what it means to die while alive....
