The film begins in the Comoros Islands in East Africa, Lorenzo Odone, the protagonist of the film, is

the first character to appear along with his friend Omouri, the introduction to the film is with the
farewell of the Odone family of the island, as they move to the USA. It is here where Lorenzo
begins to present problems such as the fact that he has become aggressive, restless, suffers from
dizziness, among other things, problems to which doctors can not find an explanation at first until
his symptoms become more present and find that it is a leukodystrophy, more specifically ALD,
which is a genetic failure of metabolism that causes a degeneration of the brain by the loss of
myelin and which is unstoppable and therefore the children die two years after the diagnosis of
this disease.

The doctor informs Lorenzo's parents that there is no treatment for ALD. Desperate for their son's
illness, his parents begin to search for a treatment that can stop the progression of ALD in Lorenzo,
who at this point begins to lose his speech, his mobility deteriorates and he has hair loss. The
Odone's locate Dr. Nikolais, who informs them that foods rich in child fats are harmful to Lorenzo,
as his disease prevents these saturated fats from being burned, so they accumulate in the brain,
leading to its deterioration. The specialist informs them that he will give Lorenzo a diet to avoid
saturated fats and that the ALD will be transmitted from the mother.

The diet the specialist gave Lorenzo does not have good results, as his fat levels have increased
instead of decreasing. Lorenzo loses more speech, his hair disappears and his engine retardation
increases. Later an ALD foundation seeks out Lorenzo's parents to offer support, not doctors but a
couple who also have a child with ALD. The children with ALD of the families that belong to the
foundation also follow the same diet as Lorenzo, so a banter begins, provoked by Lorenzo's
parents, but ignored by the presidents of the foundation.

Seeing that Lorenzo still does not improve, the parents prefer to investigate on their own about
ALD and stop entrusting their son to the doctors. Lorenzo's father begins his research by asking the
question: Why is it that if saturated fats are eliminated from Lorenzo's diet, they continue to
increase, causing ALD to progress? In specific the fats that Lorenzo is producing more than typical
child C24 and C26, his mother, who is also doing research, reasons that perhaps what needs to be
done is to stop producing these fats and replace them with other fats.

The Odones contacted Dr. Nikolais with the intention of organizing the first world symposium on
the treatment of ALD. One of those present, Dr. William B. Rizzo, told the forum about his
discovery: C18 monounsaturated oleic acid, a routine component of olive oil, had been shown
experimentally to be bold in reducing the concentration of long-chain fatty acids in fibroblast
cultures from the skin of ALD patients. The olive oil-based diet could be the solution to ALD, but
there are some roughage complications with the use of these fats, so a chemical company capable
of extracting the C24 and C26 fatty acids from oleic acid, i.e. obtaining a C18 fatty acid in the form
of triglyceride, suitable for human consumption, must be found.

Under the supervision of Dr. Nikolais, the Odones start giving their son 30 ml of the particular oil
daily. His serum levels of long-chain fatty acids begin to drop, but in spite of this Lorenzo starts to
get worse: he suffers from paroxysms, choking on his own spit, and so the Odone family's situation
also worsens.

Lorenzo's father resumes his research on ALD and discovers that the same enzyme is in charge of
synthesizing monounsaturated fatty acids and elongating saturated ones. The last step would be a
competitive enzyme inhibition, capable of blocking the elongation of saturated fatty acids above
C22 and C24, and this would be achieved by adding erucic acid. Specialist Nikolais informs the
Odones that erucic acid can cause heart problems in rats, but it does not stop the Odones. But the
chemical problem would now be in obtaining an erucic acid free of saturated C24 and C26. The
Odones contact the Odones in contact with Wear Suddaby who starts some time later with a
complicated process of chemical fragmentation of the erucic acid and achieves his goal later. The
Odones already have the erucic acid triglyceride. But, unfortunately, for Lorenzo it has been
almost 2 years since he was diagnosed with the disease.

In the film, Omouri, Lorenzo's East African friend, travels to the Odone's house to take over
Lorenzo's care. The final composition of "Lorenzo's oil" will consist of four parts of oleic acid and
one part of erucic acid. The initial dose of his homonymous oil will be 8 grams per day for Lorenzo.
Later on, Lorenzo's long-chain fatty acid levels normalize. In February 1987, Lorenzo regains the
ability to pass food through it. At the age of 10, Lorenzo begins to communicate with his family
and caregivers through a simple system of opening and closing his eyes. The film concludes with a
series of events that followed in the Odone family and how Lorenzo continued to progress thanks
to the oil that his parents and many scientists struggled to make a reality