A biographical study of Albert Einstein, with not only an analysis of his place in modern physics and in our understanding of the universe, but an analysis (through his and his wife's letters) of Einstein as a person. Never comfortable with human inter-relationships, he married first for love and the spoken intent to make his wife a part of his intellectual life. But responsibilites of family life and a child overcame him. Work in theoretical physics moved his wife and son to a secondary role, and a later love affair with his cousin completed the estrangement. Part of the film is taken from archival material, part is a recreation with Einstein's thoughts presented by an actor. Animations explain basics of his theory of relativity, mass-energy equivalence, and the nature of light.