When his sister dies in a car accident with her husband, leaving behind a baby daughter, Gordon McKenna naturally assumes he will adopt the baby girl, whom he helped raise. His hopes are dashed in an eight-minute hearing when a judge rules that since Gordon (himself adopted as a newborn) is not a blood relative of Keefer's, custody should be granted to a second cousin of the baby's father. As Gordon fights a losing battle to adopt Keefer, he realises that he is not yet ready to become a father and, after two years of legal wrangling, he decides to give Keefer up, rather than uproot her from the only home she has known. Fate, however, has other ideas. A Theory of Relativity traces the struggles of one family, and examines the meaning of connection among members of all families.