Seventy-five years ago, the intuition of a young woman forever changed what we knew about the brain. Everything was working against her: gender, religion, culture. Yet she did not give up.

After 36 years the discovery of the nerve growth factor the NGF was awarded with the Nobel Prize. And even then, the scientific community did not fully understand the scope of that revolution. The hidden language of nerves had been identified: the molecules that guide development and protect the nervous system throughout life. Today we call them neurotrophins, the guardians of the brain.

More than seventy years have passed, and these molecules are now beginning to fuel the hope of offering an answer to the millions of people affected by Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and brain injuries. But the body is a complex machine, and there are no shortcuts to success.

This documentary takes the viewer on a journey through the past, present, and future of a field still largely unexplored in neuroscience: from the adventurous history of a groundbreaking discovery to the extraordinary potential of its applications, following the work of scientists who, every day, strive to change the fate of those who today have no cure.