As a young girl, Diana Prince participates in a multi-stage athletic competition on Themyscira against older Amazons. After falling from her horse and taking a shortcut, she is disqualified. Diana’s mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her aunt Antiope lecture her on the importance of truth, because “no hero is born from lies”.
In 1984, decades after the events of World War I, Diana works as a senior anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., specializing in the culture of ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Diana continues to fight crime as Wonder Woman, albeit while maintaining some anonymity. At work, she meets Barbara Ann Minerva, an insecure woman who idolizes and envies Diana for her beauty and confidence and befriends her. After Wonder Woman foils an attempted robbery, the FBI asks Barbara to identify a cache of stolen antiquities from the robbery- one item both women take notice of, has an inscription in Latin.
Businessman Maxwell Lord visits the Smithsonian under the guise of making a donation. Secretly, he covets the “Dreamstone,” hoping to save his failing oil company. Both Diana and Barbara unknowingly use the stone to fulfill their own desires. Diana wishes for her deceased lover, Steve Trevor, to return, causing his soul to take over another man’s body. Barbara wishes to become strong and beautiful like Diana. During a gala night at the Smithsonian, she meets Maxwell, who seduces her in order to gain access to her office so he can take the Dreamstone. He wishes to become the embodiment of the stone and gains its power to grant wishes, while also able to take whatever he desires in return.
