When Councillor Macauley Chrisp hears of a local museum's closing, he buys an old brass machine from it and hires a young woman studying engineering to reconstruct it. The machine, named Ada, after Victorian mathematician Ada Lovelace, soon provides some astounding information which requires the help of computer expert Kate, and elderly historian Raymond, to piece together the machine's history.
Ada produces stunning data which indicates that a new 'messiah' was born in the north east of England in 1997. The team set out to discover who it is.
How Ada should be used underlines the moral differences within the group and fractures their working relationship, with tragic results.
Because of Ada, past world events will have to be redrawn. The future is at stake.
Eventually, when the machine has to pass the Turing Test to prove itself to the scientific world, its public debut doesn't go to plan.