Bern, 1905: The still-unknown Albert Einstein publishes a groundbreaking theoretical article that indirectly proves the existence of the electron. This marks the beginning of a transatlantic race between the young, aspiring Viennese researcher Felix Ehrenhaft and the American physicist Robert Millikan, who has nearly given up hope of ever achieving fame. Both are feverishly working to experimentally determine the magnitude of the electron's charge. Who can capture the tiny particle, which no one has ever seen, more precisely? A novel about the scientific community at a time when the latest research findings took weeks to cross the Atlantic. It explores life in Vienna and the USA in the early 20th century, as well as themes of passion and ambition, perseverance and underhanded tactics, intellectual dead ends and visionary thinking.