In crime ridden Gotham City, Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered before young Bruce Wayne's eyes. Although the idealistic Gotham City Police Dept. detective James Gordon, and his cynical partner, Harvey Bullock, seem to solve the case quickly, things are not so simple. Inspired by Bruce's traumatized desire for justice, Gordon vows to find it amid Gotham's corruption. Thus begins Gordon's lonely quest that would set him against his own comrades and the underworld with their own deadly rivalries and mysteries. In the coming wars, innocence will be lost and compromises will be made as some criminals will fall as casualties while others will rise as supervillains. All the while, young Bruce observes this war with a growing obsession that would one day drive him to seek his own revenge as The Batman.

In 1974, Oxford professor Joseph Coupland invites introspective lad Brian McNeil to film his experimental treatment of subject Jane Harper, aided by student assistants Krissi Dalton and Harry Abrams. Jane, a young woman with no memory of the past and repeatedly abandoned by foster families, believes herself possessed by a doll named Evey that gives her telekinetic power. Keeping her awake in an isolated house, Prof. Coupland intends that she puts her evil energy into an actual doll, thereafter destroying it to heal Jane. Amidst strange things happening in the house, Brian feels sorry for Jane and, researching her tattoo, learns an evil secret about Jane's past, and of Prof. Coupland's motivation.