In January 1947, the philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir landed at La Guardia Airport in New York. From there, she embarked on a four-month journey across the United States, during which she researched and began writing one of the most important and influential works in 20th-century feminist thought: “The Second Sex.”

This film explores Beauvoir’s journey in America and introduces viewers to some of the women and men along the way who influenced the ideas she developed in her revolutionary book. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman,” she wrote, in a profound and blunt indictment of our male-dominated society that pushes women to the margins as if it were the natural order of the world. In addition to the book’s innovative ideas, it also included the lived experience of many women, including Beauvoir’s and others in the U.S. who can be seen as precursors of the #MeToo movement. The film features several important thinkers of our time, and its creators also seek out Simone de Beauvoir’s modern-day heirs.