ACT I

The Julliard School of Music is impressed by Andy’s audition but has no scholarship money for him. The New York Academy of Sciences, on the other hand, offers him a full ride to study quantum computing. He rents a garret room in Brooklyn in a boardinghouse run by a Spanish woman named Claudia. Claudia’s eighteen-year-old daughter Pauline is drawn to Andy. Pauline is a painter and reads faces with her hands. To pay the rent, Andy plays the piano at the Blue Note Jazz Cafe in Greenwich Village. Prof. Shih, his thesis supervisor, encourages him to enter the algorithm competition at the Academy, and Andy demonstrates his code-writing talent by making a piano equipped with a quantum chip play remotely on the stage. A fellow student named Arthur introduces him to Christopher, who designed the chip, and the three men celebrate Andy’s victory at a New York dance club. There, Andy sees Rose for the first time. Andy buys a digital keyboard with his prize money from the competition and teaches Pauline how to play. Working alone, inspired by his success, Andy writes the code to create a social network for live concerts, using a quantum sensor to transport the audience into a virtual concert hall. Pauline brings him dinner every night and supports him by selling her paintings. His hair grows long. He works secretly without interruption. Andy names the network "Roxy” and launches the prototype using the Academy data center. Arthur discovers Roxy immediately. So does Rose, the Southern belle who Andy first saw at the dance club. Rose is an Influencer. Roxy features a Vanity Meter that measures its users’ popularity, and her Vanity Meter rises instantly. Arthur tells Andy that Roxy needs financing and offers to introduce him to Rose. Andy gets a haircut and buys a new suit. “I’m meeting some new people,” he tells Pauline. “Will you tell me how it turns out?” Pauline reads Andy’s face and tells him, “You have never been in love.” Her face suddenly clouds over. “What’s the matter?” Andy asks. Pauline replies miserably, "The woman you love is going to cause you to die."