The young Charles Darwin is transformed from a dilettante into a groundbreaking scientist aboard the Beagle.

Darwin finds the crucial evidence he needs to show how natural selection works. But first he must test himself and his arguments with his friends and supporters. His race to publish one of the most extraordinary theories of our time begins.

After labouring in secret for twenty years, Charles Darwin is almost trumped by the obscure, young naturalist Alfred Wallace. Shocked that someone else is drawing the same conclusions he once did while travelling through the Southern Hemisphere, Darwin is convinced by his friends to complete his masterwork and publish post-haste.