In 1893, Nikola Tesla and a female companion are roller skating. A narrator explains that Tesla was inspired as a young boy when he was petting his cat and saw static electricity. Nine years prior, in 1884 New York City, Tesla is working for Thomas Edison, who disregards Tesla's suggestions of using alternating current, and not want to pay him for the invention. Their coworker explains that Edison's disapproval was partly because of the death of his wife, When they smash ice cream cones on each other, the narrator interrupts and says that isn't how it happened. She explains how Google searches on Tesla show very few photographs and usually the same headshots. She goes into Tesla's childhood and schooling, and also that he tried to start his own company but failed, and ended up having to dig ditches. Edison, on the other hand, has more popularity, twice as many search results, but lives a lavish lifestyle and married and widowed young with his first wife Mary. While Edison meets Mina, his second wife, in 1885, Tesla pitches his work on his induction motor to investors Brown and Peck. He and his assistant Anthony Szigeti impress Professor Anthony, who suggests he break up the invention into several patents. He meets Anthony's daughter Evelyn; and Anne Morgan, the daughter of J.P. Morgan and also the film's narrator. George Westinghouse, an inventor and businessman, buys Tesla's patents and fund production where the latter would get a royalty for every product installed in a home. He shares a rivalry challenge from Edison who claims that direct current is superior, and that alternating current is dangerous. Edison shows the Westinghouse invention as a capital punishment tool on William Kemmler, who had killed his wife. Meanwhile, Tesla demonstrates his invention to an audience using two induction sticks that glow. Szigeti invents a compass apparatus, but Tesla tells him it has already been invented, so Szigeti abandons his pursuits and seeks his fortune in South Af