Each of the three main characters is trying to prove that despite influential interpretations of quantum theory, there are indeed objective truths to be found, that matter is something more than a probabilistic cloud, and that the observer is not the crucial figure in the workings of the universe.
For decades, though, despite influential studies in the early 1950s linking smoking to cancer and even after the surgeon general's report in 1964, Congressional efforts to regulate tobacco met stiff opposition from lawmakers from tobacco-growing states and their political allies.
Despite such influential friends, it continues to be a fight for Reichardt to get her movies made.
Russia's anti-abortion movement is as yet small despite its influential backing and thus has not provoked a major outcry from weakly organized women's groups.
Yet despite the influential role he played in establishing Las Vegas as a top convention destination, he is better known locally for his quarrels and legal battles.
The same might be said of the high- calibre No 8 Kieran Read, despite his influential role in the All Blacks' opening-round victory over Argentina, and the blind-side flanker Jerome Kaino, who has seemed just a little indecisive by his own forthright standards.
Cases involving young witnesses are taking longer to reach trial than the norm, the report found, despite successive influential reports calling for such cases to be prioritised - including the 1989 Pigot Committee, which recommended that courts should be able to take children's evidence at a preliminary hearing.
Despite the influential work of her compatriots Olive Schreiner, Alan Paton and Dan Jacobson, and the first novel in English by a black South African, Sol Plaatje's Mhudi, Gordimer always looked towards the novels of her European predecessors, from George Eliot to Henry James, DH Lawrence and Proust.
Yet, despite those influential backers, it looks like investors are less keen to be involved in bitcoin.
Despite his influential "you can't beat the market" book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Malkiel is a big China bull.
Despite its influential role in Hong Kongs political economy, the Kwok family has maintained a low profile in personal matters.
