A pair of truck drivers, Gorō and his younger colleague Gun, stop at a nondescript roadside ramen noodle shop. Outside, Gorō rescues a boy who is being beaten by three schoolmates. The boy, Tabo, is the son of Tampopo, the widowed owner of the struggling ramen shop, Lai Lai. Inside, a customer called Pisuken harasses Tampopo, demanding that she sell the shop. Gorō suggests Pisuken be quiet so he can enjoy his meal, then provokes a physical confrontation. Gorō puts up a good fight but, outnumbered by Pisuken and his men, he is knocked out and awakens the next morning in Tampopo's home. The next morning, she cooks breakfast for Gorō and Gun in her home kitchen and sends Tabo off to school. While eating breakfast, Tampopo asks for their opinion of her ramen, Gorō and Gun tell her it is "sincere, but lacks character." After Gorō gives her some advice, she asks him to become her teacher. They decide to turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making". She and Gorō visit her competitors and he points out their strengths and weaknesses. Still struggling to perfect the broth, Gorō takes her to a homeless encampment to enlist the "old master". When they rescue a wealthy elderly man from choking on his food, the man lends her the services of his chauffeur Shohei, who has a masterly way with noodles. Gun and his friends give Tampopo a makeover as a modern proprietress. During the transition, the group agrees to change the restaurant's name from "Lai Lai" to "Tampopo". Unrelated vignettes of other characters are also intercut within the main storyline:

The film opens with a montage of news footage depicting urban riots in a banlieue in the commune of Chanteloup-les-Vignes near Paris. The riots are the result of a local man named Abdel Ichaha being gravely injured in police custody and is hospitalized in intensive care. The riots escalate, leading to a siege of the local police station and the loss of a police officer's revolver. The film follows the lives of three friends of Abdel, all young men from immigrant families, over approximately the next twenty consecutive hours. Vinz, a young Jewish man with an aggressive temperament, seeks revenge for Abdel's injuries. He harbors a deep hatred for all police officers and secretly emulates Travis Bickle, from the American film Taxi Driver, posturing in front of his bathroom mirror. Hubert, a Christian Afro-French boxer and small-time drug dealer, aspires to escape the banlieue and create a better life for himself. However, his boxing gymnasium was destroyed in the riots. Saïd, a young North African Muslim, acts as a mediator between Vinz and Hubert, who constantly argue. The three friends lead a directionless daily routine and frequently find themselves under police surveillance. At a rooftop party that is broken up by the police, Vinz insults Notre Dame, a plainclothes police officer. After the trio leaves, Vinz reveals that he has discovered the.44 Magnum revolver lost during the riot. He plans to use it to kill a police officer if Abdel dies. While Hubert disapproves, Vinz secretly takes the gun with him. They try to visit Abdel in the hospital but are stopped by the police. Saïd is arrested after they aggressively refuse to leave, but he is later released with the assistance of a police officer who knows his brother. Vinz and Hubert disagree about their perspectives on policing and violence, and they temporarily part ways. Saïd accompanies Vinz, while Hubert briefly returns home. They reunite at another gathering in the banlieue. It descends into chaos when Abdel's brother attempts to murder a police officer as an act of revenge. In a confrontation with the police, the three narrowly escape after Vinz almost shoots a riot officer. They board a train to Paris. Their interactions with both friendly and hostile Parisians cause several encounters to escalate into risky confrontations. In a public restroom, they encounter a Polish survivor of the gulag. He tells them a story about a man who froze to death after refusing to relieve himself in public near the train and failing to re-board it in time. The trio don't understand what the story means. Later, they visit Astérix, a frequent cocaine user who owes money to Saïd. Tempers rise as Astérix appears to force Vinz to play Russian roulette, but the gun was secretly unloaded. Later, they encounter plainclothes officers who arrest Saïd and Hubert, while Vinz manages to escape. The police officers verbally and physically abuse the duo before jailing them until late at night. The three miss the last train home from Saint-Lazare station and spend the night on the streets. After failing to hotwire a car and being kicked out of an art gallery, the trio make their way to a rooftop, where they insult some passing skinheads. They take shelter in a shopping mall, where they hear a news broadcast reporting Abdel's death. Later, Vinz disappears. Hubert and Saïd find him pointing a finger gun at a police officer; the two angrily abandon Vinz at the mall. But, Hubert and Saïd later encounter the group of skinheads they had harassed, who now mercilessly attack them. Vinz intervenes and holds one of the skinheads at gunpoint. Although Hubert pushes for Vinz to kill the guy, he hesitates and finally lets the skinhead go. In the early morning, the trio returns home. Vinz gives the gun to Hubert. Vinz and Saïd encounter Notre Dame, whom Vinz had insulted at the rooftop party. He seizes Vinz, threatening him with a loaded gun against his head. Hubert rushes to their aid, but Notre Dame accidentally discharges his gun, killing Vinz. Hubert and Notre Dame enter a Mexican standoff, with each pointing a gun at the other. During the standoff, Hubert, in voiceover, tells a story with the image of a man falling from a building, assuring himself that everything is fine, as a metaphor for society's decline. Saïd closes his eyes, and a gunshot is heard. The outcome is not revealed.

Brian Cohen is born in a stable next door to Jesus, which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the future King of the Jews. He grows up into an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea. While listening to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Brian becomes infatuated with a young rebel named Judith Iscariot. His desire for her and hatred of the Romans, further exacerbated by his scolding mother, Mandy Cohen, revealing that Brian himself is half-Roman, inspire him to join the "People's Front of Judea" (PFJ). This is one of many fractious and bickering independence movements that spend more time fighting each other than the Romans. PFJ leader Reg tasks Brian to paint slogans overnight on Roman governor Pontius Pilate 's palace, but a Roman officer catches him in the act. However, the officer shows more concern with Brian's Latin grammar than the act itself, and after correcting the slogan to " Romani ite domum ", orders him to write it on the wall one hundred times. Brian finishes after sunrise and is chased by guards before being rescued by Judith. Reg gives a revolutionary speech to the PFJ asking, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" At this point the listeners outline all forms of positive aspects of the Roman occupation such as sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, public health and peace. He then outlines plans to kidnap Pilate's wife. However, inside Pilate's palace, the PFJ encounters another revolutionary group, the Campaign for a Free Galilee; an argument ensues over who came up with the plan first and everyone except Brian is knocked unconscious, leading Brian to be captured by the palace guards. The guards bring Brian before Pilate, but his questioning is cut short when the guards laugh uncontrollably after Pilate mentions the name of his friend, Biggus Dickus, and his wife, Incontinentia Buttocks. After escaping from the Romans, Brian is accidentally scooped up by a passing extraterrestrial spaceship that crash-lands back on Earth. He tries to blend in among prophets who are preaching in a busy plaza, repeating fragments of Jesus' sermons. He stops his sermon mid-sentence when some Roman soldiers depart, leaving his small but intrigued audience demanding to know more. Brian grows frantic when people chase him to the mountains, and there they declare him to be the Messiah. After spending the night with Judith, Brian discovers an enormous crowd of followers assembled outside his mother's house. Her attempts at dispersing the crowd are rebuffed. Although Brian tells them they need to think for themselves and that they are all individuals, they ironically parrot his words as doctrine. The PFJ seeks to exploit Brian's celebrity status by having him minister to a thronging crowd of followers demanding miracle cures. Brian sneaks out the back, only to be captured by the Romans and sentenced to crucifixion. In celebration of Passover, a crowd has assembled outside the palace of Pilate, who offers to pardon a prisoner of their choice as a show of friendship between the Romans and the people of Judea. However, the crowd shouts out names containing the letter "r", to mock Pilate's speech impediment, and are further amused by his friend Biggus's lisp, which causes them to laugh uncontrollably. Eventually, Judith appears in the crowd, who frantically calls for the release of Brian, which the crowd (assuming it is another joke) parrots. Realising that one of the prisoners is really named Brian, Pilate agrees to "welease Bwian". The guards eventually catch up to Brian, who is already on the cross. But in a scene that parodies the climax of the film Spartacus, various crucified people all claim to be Brian, and the wrong man is freed. Brian is successively approached and then abandoned by the PFJ, who praise his martyrdom; the Judean People's Front, who commit mass suicide as a form of political protest; Judith; and his mother. As Brian sinks to despair, the convict beside him offers a cheerful song, which Brian and the other convicts join in with (" Always Look on the Bright Side of Life ").

In 1991, robots are commonplace. When they malfunction and become dangerous, they are "runaways" handled by a division of the police trained in robotics. Sgt. Jack R. Ramsay, a veteran officer, joined the "runaway" squad after an incident in which his fear of heights allowed a criminal to escape and kill a family. After years on the job, he and his new partner Karen Thompson find themselves handling the first robotic homicide. Investigating a household robot that murdered a family, Jack discovers strange integrated circuits that override a robot's safety features and direct it to attack humans. These circuits are created from master templates, enabling them to be mass-produced. Ramsay cannot learn anything from uncooperative informants who end up dead but eventually discovers that the perpetrator is Dr. Charles Luther. Luther, while working for a defense contractor, developed a program that allows a robot to thermographically identify a human from amid cover and to differentiate between humans. Seeing the profit potential, he killed his fellow researchers and tried to sell the technology on the black market. A failed attempt to arrest Luther results in the recovery of another of his weapons, a smart bullet: a miniature heat seeking missile capable of locking onto a human target's unique heat signature. While investigating, Ramsay and Thompson find Jackie Rogers, who was once Luther's lover. She double-crossed him and stole the circuit templates, intending to sell them. When they create a ruse to transfer Jackie to safety, Luther attacks the police convoy with robotic smart bombs. They discover that the bombs are zeroing in on a bug in Jackie's purse and throw the bag out the window before a bomb reaches the car. Ramsay decides to make a public appearance with Jackie at a restaurant to draw Luther out, but instead Luther captures Thompson and wants Ramsay to exchange her for Jackie and the templates. Before making the exchange, Jackie gives some templates to Ramsay for insurance that Luther will not kill her. He kills her anyway after discovering the templates missing. To retrieve the missing templates, Luther plans to attack Ramsay. He uses the police computers to discover everything about Ramsay's personal life, including his son Bobby. After discovering that his information was hacked, Ramsay races home to find Bobby missing. Luther calls to confirm that he kidnapped Bobby and wants to exchange him for the missing templates. Ramsay agrees to meet Luther at an unfinished skyscraper. Luther gets the templates while Ramsay sends Bobby down in an elevator. "Assassin" robots — small, spider-like robots that kill by injecting their victims with acid — are waiting to kill the first person exiting the elevator. Thompson arrives and helps Bobby stay out of reach of the robots. Furious, Luther begins firing smart bullets, but Ramsay turns on the robotic construction equipment, creating heat sources that cause the bullets to miss. Ramsay attempts an escape downward on the elevator, but the elevator malfunctions, speeding up to and stopping on the very top. Ramsay is forced to overcome his acrophobia by locating a reset switch underneath to restart the elevator back down, whilst encountering and defeating 3 robot spiders. He succeeds, but encounters Luther again. During a confrontation, Ramsay and Luther fight, but Ramsay gains the upper hand by stopping the elevator. The abrupt stop catapults Luther onto the ground, in the midst of his robot spiders. Programmed to kill whoever came down, the robots rush Luther, repeatedly injecting him. After helping Bobby down, Ramsay approaches Luther. Screaming, Luther reaches up to grab Ramsay, but falls back, dead, while the spiders self-destruct. Ramsay and Thompson kiss.

As 1999 nears its end, Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone. A Chinese restaurant is robbed by a group of criminals, with one recording the event with a SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device), an illegal electronic device that records memories and physical sensations directly from the wearer's cerebral cortex onto a MiniDisc -like storage device. Lenny Nero, a former LAPD officer turned black marketeer of SQUID recordings, buys the robbery clip from his main supplier Tick. Elsewhere, Iris, a prostitute and former friend of Faith Justin (Lenny's ex-girlfriend), is chased by LAPD officers Burton Steckler and Dwayne Engelman. Iris escapes on a subway car, but Engelman pulls off her wig, revealing a SQUID recorder headset. Lenny pines for Faith and relies on emotional support from his two best friends—Max Peltier, a private investigator, and Lornette "Mace" Mason, a bodyguard and limousine driver. Mace has unrequited feelings for Lenny from when he was still a cop and acted as a father figure for her son after her boyfriend was arrested on drug charges, but disapproves of his SQUID-dealing business. While Lenny and Max are drinking at a bar, Iris drops a SQUID disc through the sunroof of Lenny's car before it is towed away. Mace picks Lenny up and takes him to a nightclub where Faith is going to sing. There, Lenny receives a SQUID disc from an anonymous contact and unsuccessfully tries to get Faith away from her new boyfriend, Philo Gant. Philo is a music industry mogul who managed the recently murdered rapper Jeriko One. While in the car with Mace, Lenny plays the disc the contact gave him and watches as Iris is brutally raped and murdered by an attacker at the Sunset Regent hotel. As they approach the hotel, Iris's body is taken out on a stretcher. The next day, they take the disc to Tick, who cannot identify the source of the recording, but recalls that Iris was looking for Lenny. Deducing Iris may have left something in Lenny's car, Mace and Lenny go to the impound and find Iris's disc. Steckler and Engelman appear and demand the disc at gunpoint, but Lenny and Mace escape in her bullet-resistant car before being forced to stop at a dock. Steckler pours gasoline on the car and sets it on fire, but Mace drives it into the harbor, extinguishing the flames. When they reach the surface, the cops have left. Mace takes Lenny to her brother's house, and they watch Iris's disc, showing Iris was with Jeriko One when Steckler and Engelman pulled him over and murdered him, because his anti-police lyrics and activism incited protests against the LAPD. The two return to Tick, who Max explains has been rendered brain-dead from forceful exposure to amplified SQUID signals. Lenny fears Iris's attacker covered his tracks by "killing" Tick and will come after Faith. Back at the nightclub, Lenny and Mace confront Faith, who reveals that Philo is afraid Iris's disc would reveal that he kept his artists under surveillance. Lenny and Mace disagree over whether to trade the disc to Philo for Faith's freedom or release it publicly, which could incite a citywide riot. As midnight approaches, Lenny and Mace sneak into a private party that Philo is hosting at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel for the city's wealthy elite. Lenny has a change of heart and tells Mace to give the disc to deputy police commissioner Palmer Strickland. In Philo's penthouse suite, Lenny finds Philo brain-dead on the floor and another disc, revealing Faith's affair with Max, who "fried" Philo's brain with an amplified recording of them feigning rape. Pointing a gun at Lenny, Max explains that Philo hired him to kill Iris, but when Philo wanted Faith dead as part of the coverup, he decided to frame Lenny for the murders. Lenny and Max struggle in a fight, Faith intervenes and pulls off Max's wig with a SQUID inside - assuring a confession - and Max stabs Lenny in the back. The fight culminates with Lenny on the balcony with Max hanging over; Lenny pulls the knife from his back to cut his necktie and drop Max to his death. Lenny goes downstairs to find Mace, leaving Faith standing alone on the balcony. Meanwhile, on the crowded streets, Mace subdues Steckler and Engelman with baton and taser, but other officers take down Mace. The crowd moves in, in support of Mace, and a major riot seems inevitable. Strickland, who has viewed Iris's disc, arrives and orders Mace's release and the arrest of Steckler and Engelman for murder. Engelman commits suicide; Steckler threatens Mace, but the officers gun him down. Lenny finds Mace, and the two share a hug before she gets in Strickland's car. Then Lenny drags her out, and they share a kiss as the crowd celebrates the turn of the new millennium.

Nicholas Van Orton is an investment banker in San Francisco. He is very successful and wealthy, but also cold and condescending, as well as lonely and reclusive. He remains haunted by the death of his father, who committed suicide on his 48th birthday by jumping off the roof of the family mansion. Therefore, Nicholas is feeling grim on his 48th birthday. On the day, he is surprisingly visited by his estranged younger brother, Conrad, who gifts him an unusual present—a voucher for a "game" offered by Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Though skeptical, Nicholas cannot help but be interested and he goes to the CRS office to apply; the time-consuming psychological and physical examinations required irritate him. He is later informed that his application has been rejected. This angers him. Nicholas returns home one evening to find a wooden clown in his driveway, which he drags inside. While watching the Cable Financial Network (CFN), the anchor begins talking to Nicholas through his TV screen. The anchor tells Nicholas that he is being watched by a tiny camera in the clown's head and provides him with the telephone number for a CRS 24-hour emergency hotline. He warns Nicholas not to call the hotline asking about the object of the game, as "figuring that out is the object of the game." More bizarre events continue; Nicholas initially thinks CRS is simply staging elaborate pranks, but he comes to believe it is real when his business, reputation, and safety are endangered. He meets a waitress, Christine, who also becomes involved. A panic-stricken Conrad visits Nicholas and apologizes, claiming CRS has attacked him. An argument breaks out between the two brothers, resulting in Conrad running away—leaving Nicholas on his own. Nicholas gets into a taxi; after locking the doors, the driver jumps out before the car crashes into San Francisco Bay. Nicholas manages to escape the sinking car, using a tool mysteriously left for him a day before. He reaches the surface and contacts police, but they find the CRS office abandoned. With no one else to turn to, Nicholas finds Christine's home and discovers she is a CRS employee. When she tells him they are being watched, Nicholas attacks a nearby camera, and armed CRS personnel swarm the house. When they fire at the two of them, they flee to a Van Orton home outside of the city. Christine has told Nicholas that CRS has drained his bank accounts by guessing his passwords using the psychological tests he completed, but a call to his lawyer suggests the money remains intact. Nicholas then begins to feel dizzy and realizes Christine has drugged him. As he loses consciousness, she admits she is part of the scam and says he made a fatal mistake in giving his card security code over the phone. Nicholas wakes entombed alive in a Mexican cemetery. He sells his watch (a gift from his mother) to return to San Francisco, only to find his mansion foreclosed and most of his possessions removed. He contacts the hotel where Conrad was staying, and is told his brother has been committed to a mental institution following a nervous breakdown. Nicholas retrieves a hidden gun and finds his ex-wife to ask for help. While apologizing to her for his emotional neglectfulness, he learns that Jim Feingold, the CRS employee who conducted his tests, is an actor working in television advertisements. He finds Jim and forces him to find the real CRS office, finds Christine there and takes her hostage, demanding to be taken to the head of CRS. Pursued by CRS guards, Nicholas takes Christine to the roof. Christine, realizing Nicholas's gun is not a prop, frantically tells him it is only a game; his finances are intact, and his family and friends are waiting on the other side of the door. He refuses to believe her, and Nicholas shoots the first person to emerge—Conrad, bearing a bottle of champagne. Devastated, Nicholas tries to commit suicide by leaping off the roof, but lands on a giant air cushion in a banquet hall. He is greeted by Conrad and the rest of the actors from the game, revealing that the gun was a prop. Everything had been staged by Conrad for Nicholas's birthday present. After a birthday party with friends, Christine (whose real name is Claire) declines Nicholas's offer of a date because she has another job lined up in Australia. She instead suggests they have coffee together at the airport, ending the final scene with Nicholas looking half-tempted, half-cautious.

In 1954, struggling Prince Castle salesman Ray Kroc travels to San Bernardino, California to meet Dick and Mac McDonald at their eponymous restaurant after the brothers purchase eight of his milkshake machines. Kroc lauds the brothers' success over dinner. Mac and Dick explain the restaurant's origins and success after a complete redesign of the store in 1948, eliminating unnecessary overhead and cutting costs. Eager to cash in, Kroc presses the brothers to expand franchising. After an initial refusal, the brothers agree to a business deal with stringent contract terms and a lengthy approval process for potential changes. Kroc breaks ground in Des Plaines, putting up his home as collateral. Hungry for more growth, Kroc pursues wealthy local connections for investment in franchising and recruits Fred L. Turner as his business partner. After early struggles with franchise operators not being involved, which had doomed the brothers' previous franchise attempts, Ray hit on the model of the local operator: putting the franchisee directly into the workspace and working alongside their staff. Kroc sees rapid gains and continues to expand, traveling to St. Paul to oversee the first opening in the Twin Cities. There, Kroc meets Rollie Smith, and his wife, Joan, who are interested in franchising; Kroc immediately becomes infatuated with Joan. At the same time, Kroc is stressed out over rising pressure from financial operating costs and falls behind on his payments. Kroc is unsuccessful at renegotiating his contract with the McDonald brothers, and, when his bank forecloses on his home, Kroc's wife, Ethel, discovers her husband put the house up as collateral without her knowledge. Kroc subsequently files for divorce from Ethel. Kroc visits his bank for help with his lease terms and is approached by former Tastee-Freez Finance VP Harry Sonneborn, who offers to review Kroc's books. Sonneborn explains to Ray that the business operator model will fail under the restrictions imposed by the McDonald brothers' contract terms. Sonneborn guides Kroc towards the evolution of McDonald's into a real-estate model with financial investor backing. In 1955, Franchise Realty Corporation is incorporated and begins an aggressive expansion of the McDonald's franchise. When the brothers are informed of the new company and Kroc's intent to buy the land, Dick and Mac are taken aback, but are powerless against the power Kroc now has. Emboldened, Kroc approaches his attorney for help getting out of his contract and implements further changes to the franchises without Dick and Mac's approval, including the introduction of a powdered milkshake mix to reduce costs. When Kroc officially rebrands Franchise Realty Corporation as the McDonald's Corporation, Mac collapses from diabetic shock and is hospitalized. Kroc visits the brothers at the hospital and offers them a blank check to buy them out. Realizing that Kroc can't be defeated, the brothers agree to sell for $2.7 million, the rights to the San Bernardino location and 1% of future profits. Kroc agrees to their terms except for the future profits and offers to pay these under a handshake agreement. The brothers reluctantly agree, and Kroc becomes the sole owner of the McDonald's Corporation. Dick asks Kroc why he didn't just take the idea and run with it. Kroc admits that he always wanted the restaurant for himself because of the brothers' last name. He laments his own Slavic last name as not "American" enough for American consumers, while McDonald's represents American values. The brothers are forced to change the name of their original location, and Kroc begins construction of a new McDonald's immediately across the street in San Bernardino. In 1970, Kroc, now married to Joan, prepares for a public speech that California Governor Ronald Reagan will attend. He heavily plagiarizes a speech he listened to earlier, arguing his success came from persistence. An epilogue reveals several facts about the company: Kroc's secretary, June Martino, became a part owner in the McDonald's Corporation. Sonneborn was made president and CEO but quit after falling out with Kroc a few years later, never speaking of McDonald's again for the rest of his life. Turner succeeded Kroc as senior chairman, expanding the company worldwide. Kroc and Joan remained married until Kroc's death in 1984. Kroc's San Bernardino McDonald's drove the McDonald brothers' original restaurant out of business in a few years. Kroc did not honor his handshake deal―the McDonald brothers were never paid their royalties, which would eventually have been over $100 million a year. McDonald's feeds about 1% of the world's population every day.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a struggling and indigent citizen in the city of Madras in India working at menial jobs at the edge of poverty. While performing his menial labour, his employers notice that he seems to have exceptional skills in mathematics and they begin to make use of him for rudimentary accounting tasks. It becomes equally clear to his employers, who are college-educated, that Ramanujan's mathematical insights exceed the simple accounting tasks they are assigning to him and soon they encourage him to make his personal writings in mathematics available to the general public and to start to contact professors of mathematics at universities by writing to them. One such letter is sent to G. H. Hardy, a famous mathematician at University of Cambridge, who begins to take a special interest in Ramanujan. Hardy soon invites Ramanujan to Cambridge to test his mettle as a potential theoretical mathematician. Ramanujan is overwhelmed by the opportunity and decides to pursue Hardy's offer, even though this means he must leave his wife Janaki for an extended period. He parts lovingly with Janaki and promises to keep up his correspondence with her. Upon arrival at Cambridge, Ramanujan encounters various forms of racial prejudice and finds his adjustment to life in England more difficult than expected. Hardy, though much impressed by Ramanujan's abilities, remains concerned about Ramanujan's ability to communicate effectively due to his lack of experience in writing proofs, but with perseverance, he manages to get Ramanujan published in a major journal. In the meantime, Ramanujan is diagnosed with tuberculosis and his frequent letters home to his wife remain unanswered after many months. Hardy continues to see much more promise in Ramanujan. However, he remains unaware of the personal difficulties his student is having with his housing and with his lack of contact with his family back home in India. Ramanujan's health worsens while he continues delving into deeper and more profound research interests in mathematics under the guidance of Hardy and others at Cambridge. Janaki, after much elapsed time, wonders why she has not heard from Ramanujan and eventually discovers that his mother has been intercepting his letters, and withholding hers to him. Hardy makes special efforts to get Ramanujan's now recognisably exceptional mathematical skills accepted by the university, by nominating Ramanujan for a fellowship of Trinity College. At first, Hardy fails for reasons related to college politics and racial prejudice. By gaining the support of key members of the college, Hardy again successfully nominates Ramanujan as a Fellow of the Royal Society, thereby forcing his acceptance as a fellow of Trinity. Ramanujan is eventually reunited with his family in India, though his declining health, exacerbated by poor housing and harsh winter weather in England, ultimately takes its toll and leads to his death aged 32, soon after his recognition as a mathematician of international merit and importance.

In 2016, the United States is in a sustained economic depression. Industrial disasters, resource shortages, and gasoline prices at $37 per gallon have made railroads the primary mode of transportation, but even they are in disrepair. After a major accident on the Rio Norte line of the Taggart Transcontinental railroad, CEO James Taggart shirks responsibility. His sister Dagny Taggart, Vice-President in Charge of Operations, defies him by replacing the aging track with new rails made of Rearden Metal, which is claimed to be lighter yet stronger than steel. Dagny meets with its inventor, Hank Rearden, and they negotiate a deal they both admit serves their respective self-interests. Politician Wesley Mouch —nominally Rearden's lobbyist in Washington, D.C. —is part of a crowd that views heads of industry as persons who must be broken or tamed. James Taggart uses political influence to ensure that Taggart Transcontinental is designated the exclusive railroad for the state of Colorado. Dagny is confronted by Ellis Wyatt, a Colorado oil man angry to be forced to do business with Taggart Transcontinental. Dagny promises him that he will get the service he needs. Dagny encounters former lover Francisco d'Anconia, who presents a façade of a playboy grown bored with the pursuit of money. He reveals that a series of copper mines he built are worthless, costing his investors (including the Taggart railroad) millions. Rearden lives in a magnificent home with a wife and a brother who are happy to live off his effort, though they overtly disrespect it. Rearden's anniversary gift to his wife Lillian is a bracelet made from the first batch of Rearden Metal, but she considers it a garish symbol of Hank's egotism. At a dinner party, Dagny dares Lillian to exchange it for Dagny's diamond necklace, which she does. As Dagny and Rearden rebuild the Rio Norte line, talented people quit their jobs and refuse all inducements to stay. Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Stadler of the State Science Institute puts out a report implying that Rearden Metal is dangerous. Taggart Transcontinental stock plummets because of its use of Rearden Metal, and Dagny leaves Taggart Transcontinental temporarily and forms her own company to finish the Rio Norte line. She renames it the John Galt Line, in defiance of the phrase "Who is John Galt?"—which has come to stand for any question to which it is pointless to seek an answer. A new law forces Rearden to sell most of his businesses, but he retains Rearden Steel for the sake of his metal and to finish the John Galt Line. Despite strong government and union opposition to Rearden Metal, Dagny and Rearden complete the line ahead of schedule and successfully test it on a record-setting run to Wyatt's oil fields in Colorado. At the home of Wyatt, now a close friend, Dagny and Rearden celebrate the success of the line. As Dagny and Rearden continue their celebration into the night by fulfilling their growing sexual attraction, the shadowy figure responsible for the disappearances of prominent people visits Wyatt with an offer for a better society based on personal achievement. The next morning, Dagny and Rearden begin investigating an abandoned prototype of an advanced motor that could revolutionize the world. They realize the genius of the motor's creator and try to track him down. Dagny finds Dr. Hugh Akston, working as a cook at a diner, but he is not willing to reveal the identity of the inventor; Akston knows whom Dagny is seeking and says she will never find him, though he may find her. Another new law limits rail freight and levies a special tax on Colorado. It is the final straw for Ellis Wyatt. When Dagny hears that Wyatt's oil fields are on fire, she rushes to the scene of the fire where she finds a handwritten signpost that reads "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours." Wyatt declares in an answering machine message that he is "on strike".