Calvin Evans, a brilliant but grudge-prone, introverted rower with a stellar research record, works alone in a large Hastings lab. Elizabeth Zott, stuck in cramped conditions, enters his lab for badly needed beakers and is dismissed as a secretary. She takes the beakers anyway, igniting tension.

Calvin seeks her out to apologize, but Elizabeth rebuffs his overtures. Colleagues warn of Calvin’s grudges as Elizabeth faces cold shoulders and hears her boss, Dr. Donatti, slur her, triggering a flashback. At UCLA, her advisor, Dr. Meyers, assaulted her; she defended herself with a pencil, after which the university protected him and rescinded her doctoral future, pushing her to Hastings.

Back at Hastings, Donatti demotes Elizabeth to a trivial amino acid study. Two weeks later, at The Mikado, Calvin becomes violently ill and vomits on Elizabeth in the lobby. She steadies him, gets him home, and he apologizes for his earlier assumptions. Their paths realign.

Over coffee, Elizabeth outlines her DNA condensing-agent work and the systemic barriers—especially sex discrimination—hindering her progress. Calvin, initially naive about the bias, urges outsmarting the system and offers his status to reinstate her research, which also benefits his own work. Elizabeth agrees on strict work-only terms; both secretly hope for more.