Aspirin, the most widely-used medication in the world, and heroin, one of the most insidious compounds known to man, were both created in the same laboratory over a two week period in Elberfeld, Germany, in 1897. Born by Fire chronicles the life of Arthur Eichengrun, the young Jewish chemist at the center of these two discoveries, and a man who eventually abdicated the credit for Aspirin for financial and personal gain. The script then traces the consequences of this decision, as Arthur grows older and Germany becomes increasingly anti-Semitic in the buildup to World War II.