Alpha's been raised along scientific principles, and will make Mike Regan a great human interest story for his paper. But when his interview prompts Alpha to run away from the institute and ask him to show her some magic, Mike gets more responsibility than he bargained for. Especially since another story of his, one involving gangsters, has also come home to roost.—Kathy Li

Six year old foundling Alpha, who has ostensibly lived her entire life at and under the strict control of the Pickering Institute in New York City, has been their scientific experiment since her arrival. Testing their theory of education, they, in a still warm and caring manner, have subjected her to a regimented academic and practical schedule while restricting any extraneous external element or stimuli to see if she becomes the accelerated genius they expect. It is now time for the experiment to be evaluated, specifically by imminent Harvard psychologists Dr. and Mrs. Joshua Pringle. Catching wind of the story, Ed, the New York Morning Transcript city editor, assigns reporter Mike Regan to the story. Mike is currently on the outs with both Ed and Mike's nightclub chanteuse girlfriend Katie Mallory for focusing more of his time on his guy pursuits than either his work or on her, but gets this assignment, which he doesn't really want, as a Harvard alumnus who can probably use the fact that he had a class with Pringle as an in. After meeting Alpha, Mike, out of circumstance, is forced to take care of her away from the Institute for a few days, Katie, despite Mike's pleas, who does not give into his want for her to be Alpha's primary caregiver. Mike finds that Alpha knows all about economics, can speak Chinese and knows how to play the harp among other things, but he tries to show her how to view the world in a slightly different, childlike vein. As a side consequence, he also finds that she does not know how to express true human emotion. While Alpha slowly succumbs to seeing the world the way Mike shows her, Mike gets a taste for what it means to be a responsible adult, which he will have to decide if that's how he wants to live his life after the few days, whether it be with regard to his work, to Katie and/or to Alpha. The situation with Mike, Katie and Alpha is further complicated when the subject of one of Mike's series of articles comes back into his life, namely Packy Roost, who was awaiting trial for murder until he escaped from jail.—Huggo