A celebrity, a novelist, a philosopher, an inspiration. In 1949, everyone's eyes were on novelist Ayn Rand and her philosophy. This philosophy was never more evident than in her bizarre love life.

Rand is excited and attracted to her brilliant, young and handsome new protégé. Believing that she can control people's hearts as well as their minds, she convinces her husband and the wife of her protégé to allow them to have a long term affair while staying married. This shocking arrangement lasts for fifteen years while the lovers triumph and the spouses suffer until, as fate would have it, her protégé's interest begins to turn to a young student of his own.

Based on the best-selling biography about the acclaimed author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, comes an incredible true story of desire and deception starring Helen Mirren (Some Mother's Son), Eric Stoltz (Pulp Fiction), Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise) and Peter Fonda (Ulee's Gold).