Benjamin Button is born in Baltimore in 1860 with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, and already capable of speech. His father, Roger, invites neighbourhood boys to play with him and orders him to play with children’s toys, but Benjamin obeys only to please his father. At five, Benjamin is sent to kindergarten, but he is quickly withdrawn after he repeatedly falls asleep during the children’s activities. At the age of 18, Benjamin enrolls in Yale College, but he is sent home by officials who think that he is a 50-year-old lunatic. When Benjamin turns 20, the Button family realizes that he is aging backwards.