In the winter of 1915, Cambridge University mathematician G.H. Hardy receives an extraordinary letter from Srinivasa Ramanujan, a clerk in India. In spite of Ramanujan’s lack of formal education, the tidbits of the work he sends make Hardy believe the Indian is a genius. Intrigued, Hardy decides to bring him to England. But when Ramanujan is finally convinced to make the journey, their only connection is mathematics. Hardy is “a man of habit,” a self-regarding atheist, and a repressed homosexual. The handsome Ramanujan is an orthodox high-caste Hindu, a married man, and a devotee of the goddess Namagiri.