Ayn Rand, author of THE FOUNTAINHEAD and founder of the philosophical sect known as Objectivism, may have been a genius, but her personal life played out like a plot from a pulp romance novel. This film is the story of Rand's affair with a man 25 years her junior, Nathaniel Branden (Stoltz), a young philosophy student whom she met during a dinner at her home along with his girlfriend, Barbara. Though Mrs. Rand was still in love with her husband (Fonda) she was so attracted to Mr. Branden, who greatly resembled the heroes of her novels, that she convinced her husband, Barbara, and Nathaniel that she must have an affair with him. A story about a very strange love triangle, THE PASSION OF AYN RAND is based on a book by Nathaniel's girlfriend, Barbara, and it illuminates the massive ego and charisma of one of the most influential females of the twentieth century.