Trace the history of the idea across centuries of bizarre devices and gimcrack clockwork gadgets, into the present day where devotees cluster in packs to develop the most complex theories and mechanisms in the goal to uncover the secret of perpetual motion. Follow the story of utterly sincere and committed inventors like Aldo Costa, who has spent fifty years building a 56-foot diameter gravity wheel in France, or the American, John Bedini, propagating a whole race of electric motors that drive on themselves.

On the way discover that the mind is a tricky place, and hope is both a balm and a deceiver. Great ideas and great inventions are all guesses, all begin in faith and nurtured by optimism, and advance in the teeth of resistance. And who should tell a crusader when to stop? After all it was Einstein who said, “Great inventions often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.”