Brian Finch, a 28-year-old burnout and battling artist, is acquainted with NZT-48, a wonder medicate that gives him access to each neuron in his cerebrum. For twelve hours in the wake of taking the pill, he turns into the most brilliant individual on the planet, ready to impeccably review everything about his life and fit for tremendous jumps of instinct and thinking. With the secretive US Senator Eddie Morra furnishing him with an insusceptibility shot to check NZT's lethal symptoms, Brian utilizes his improved capacities to help FBI operator Rebecca Harris. The FBI doesn't think about the shot and Brian needs to battle to keep the two universes discrete.