The film tells the story of a gifted little girl (Mary) who is discovered to be talented in mathematics, her uncle (Frank) and her grandmother have a disagreement over the child's education and parenting, and a lawsuit about child custody is triggered.
Frank was a promising assistant at Boston University when, unexpectedly, he gave up his old career and chose to become a boat repairer.
Frank's little niece, Mary, faced the sudden death of her mother. Little Mary, who lost her mother, began to live with her uncle Frank.
Mary is intelligent, but not easy to get along with. 7-year-old Mary has a peculiar talent for mathematics and can easily solve advanced equations. As soon as she entered the school, she attracted the attention of her teachers and classmates.
However, Frank, who lost his sister, just wanted to let his niece live an ordinary life like other children, so he insisted on sending Mary to an ordinary public school.
Mary gradually came out of the pain of losing her mother, and she began to like the new life of having friends, classmates, and being spoiled by her uncle. Frank and Mary shared each other's knowledge and experience of life. Here, the little genius Mary experienced the joy and happiness of being an ordinary child for the first time.
One day, Frank's mother, Evelyn, who is Mary's grandmother, suddenly appears. After learning that her son sent Mary to an ordinary public school, Evelyn was so angry that she offered to raise her granddaughter herself.
As a veteran mathematician, Evelyn hopes that her granddaughter will continue the arduous path of schooling like her gifted mother. Frank and Evelyn clashed over Mary's parenting concepts, and the mother and son went to court to fight for Mary's custody.
Above the court, under the confrontation, the contradiction between the mother and son broke out completely. Frank's sister's death is mentioned again. Frank believes that it is precisely because of his mother's paranoid education method that his sister blindly pursues achievement in mathematics, which leads to her misfortune in life, and finally chooses to commit suicide.
Evelyn, however, believes that as a gifted mathematician, her daughter Diane should pursue a life different from ordinary people and should not bury her talent.
It was only after the mother, son and son had a truly candid exchange that they realized that the two of them didn't understand each other's life so much, and the philosophy of life they upheld was so different. It turned out that it was because Frank saw his sister's life that he gave up his academic pursuit that he was not eager to pursue, and chose to pursue a simpler career that he loved more.
Frank's words touched Evelyn, and when she recalled it again, she found that she also knew very little about her daughter's life.
This time, for Frank and Evelyn, it's not just about Mary's custody battle.
In the process of fighting with his mother for custody, Frank finally woke up and realized that his "ordinary life" style had become a reverse high-pressure education. So, after experiencing the pull of two educational views, Frank tried a balance: send Mary to a high school to learn knowledge commensurate with her intelligence; in her spare time, let her play games with her peers and enjoy life.
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