William eats stolen gum and his father pretends the gum is cursed to teach him a lesson about theft.

Trywell is arrested after a drunken fight and offered his freedom if he agrees to become a man of faith.

Uncle John dies of tuberculosis, leaving the Kamkwamba family with fewer farming resources.

William and Geoffrey take apart radios so frequently they start their own radio repair business.

William observes a bicycle dynamo powering a lamp and becomes fascinated by generating electricity.

Food shortages worsen and Trywell announces the family will eat only one meal each day.

William is forced to drop out of secondary school because he cannot afford the school fees.

Khamba is too weak to survive, so William leaves him tied to a tree to die.

The Kamkwamba crops return and the family survives the famine.

William reads about windmills at the library and understands that wind can generate electricity.

Gilbert purchases the generator William needs to complete his windmill.

William, Geoffrey, and Gilbert complete the windmill tower and the bulb in William's hand lights up.

Villagers accuse the windmill of blowing clouds away, but William and Gilbert convince them otherwise.

Library officials touring Malawi discover the windmill and connect William with Dr. Mchazime, who arranges publicity.

William presents his windmill at the TED conference, receives a standing ovation, and raises funds for his village.

William Kamkwamba grows up in rural Malawi surrounded by superstition, farming hardship, and a father whose quiet rejection of magic quietly shapes his son's thinking. When drought and government neglect trigger a devastating famine, William is forced out of secondary school and left to find his own path forward. Spending his days at the local library, he teaches himself about electricity and has a breakthrough realization that wind can power a generator. With the help of his closest friends and a donated generator, William builds a working windmill that lights a bulb and astonishes his community. His invention attracts outside attention, and William eventually takes his story to a TED conference, where a standing ovation and generous funding mark the beginning of a larger mission. The funds raised allow him to improve his village, and the windmill becomes a symbol of what hope and self-education can accomplish against impossible odds.

The headline story of William's windmill and his journey from village boy to the world stage.

Trywell earns the nickname 'the Pope' among traders for refusing to use prostitutes.

Trywell fights off twelve police officers on Independence Day before accepting a night in jail.

Uncle Socrates moves his family and his dog Khamba onto the Kamkwamba farm.

Charity is blinded by nkhaze tree sap and William's mother cures him using breastmilk.

William hunts birds and gives them to Charity's clubhouse boys, but they take the birds and turn him away.

William and Gilbert sit qualifying exams to gain entry to secondary school.

Chief Wimbe asks President Muluzi for food assistance at a rally and is beaten for speaking out.

Annie elopes during the famine, provoking Trywell's fury.

William is sent to the food distributor and is cheated out of a fair share of food.

A cholera epidemic spreads through the village, killing hundreds of people during the ongoing famine.

William sneaks into school classes and negotiates with teachers to pay his fees after the tobacco harvest.

William starts a small business allowing people to charge mobile phones using the windmill's electricity.

Trywell tells William he is proud of him for building the windmill.

William's mother falls gravely ill with malaria but survives.

William travels to America and visits a wind farm in California, resolving to keep trying.

Behind William's central story lies a rich web of secondary events that define the world he navigates. His father Trywell's colorful past as a trader and fighter establishes the character of the man who will eventually support William's dreams. When extended family moves onto the farm and drought sets in, a series of smaller crises — a friend's injury, a Christmas of desperation, a corrupt government rally — pile pressure onto the community. The famine's human toll is made vivid through illness, cheating food distributors, and a cholera outbreak that claims hundreds of lives. Even as William's windmill begins to work, new challenges arise at home and in the village, including the death of a beloved chief and a family brush with malaria. These events do not drive the plot as directly as the main arc, but they fill in the human cost and community texture that give William's triumph its full meaning.

The supporting moments that shaped William's world and the people around him.

Trywell laughs after the gum incident, revealing to William that he never believed in any curse.

Shabani's mangolomera magic fails and William loses the fight he starts, exposing the fraud.

Jeremiah inherits Uncle John's farm but quickly wastes the profits, leaving little for planting or workers.

William learns to harvest residual electricity from discarded batteries to power his radio repair work.

William and Geoffrey discover that a bicycle dynamo can power a radio during their experiments.

Geoffrey falls dangerously ill with anemia as famine deepens and the family sacrifices food to feed him.

William and Charity cook a tough goatskin at the clubhouse for Christmas and choose not to share it.

William hears President Muluzi on the radio denying that any famine is occurring in Malawi.

William and Charity take Khamba on a final hunting trip and find him too weak to carry on.

The Kamkwambas bring in their most successful harvest in years, ending the family's starvation.

William builds a small windmill model and successfully generates an electrical charge from it for the first time.

William tests the windmill's generator on his father's radio and accidentally destroys it before making the right adjustments.

Chief Wimbe dies, leaving Gilbert and the entire village in grief.

Soyapi Mumba selects William to attend a TED conference and William boards an airplane for the first time.

William returns home to find the windmill wrecked by wind and termites, repairs it, and is accepted to the African Leadership Academy.

Beneath the surface of William's story runs a current of pivotal moments where a single realization or decision redirects the course of his life. From his father's laugh after the gum episode — which first cracks William's belief in magic — to his library breakthrough connecting dynamos and windmills, these are the scenes where the story quietly turns. The famine forces a series of moral reckonings, including William's guilt-laden decision to leave Khamba and his private Christmas meal shared only with Charity, not the wider village. A government denial on the radio pushes William to stop waiting for outside help and start building something himself. The windmill's construction brings its own revelations, including the accidental destruction of his father's radio that teaches him to control the power he is harnessing. By the end, William accepts a place at the African Leadership Academy and commits to repairing what time and nature have worn down, understanding that progress must be continually maintained.

The discoveries, decisions, and emotional shifts that changed everything for William.