Nicodemus Boffin rose from a boyhood in the ash heaps of East London to reach the pinnacles of British science when he is mentored by the great scientist, Michael Faraday. When he finds a secret laboratory notebook in which Faraday has described incomprehensible experiments, Nicodemus wonders if his mentor has discovered a new science, or lost his faculties. Nicodemus's rival, Viscount Whitehall-Barnes, seeks to gain the notebook by any means necessary to study the descriptions of a strange orange mineral with unusual properties which he believes is the alchemists' Philosopher's Stone. Realizing that the Viscount must never learn of secrets of the orange stone, Nicodemus takes action to keep the knowledge hidden, protect his family, and preserve the legacy of his mentor.