Professor Charles Xavier (the world's most powerful telepath) takes gifted children and teaches them to control their powers for good. He does this at Xavier's Academy for Gifted Youngsters, his school for mutants. This school is the home to the X-Men. The story is about the X-Men trying to stop Erik Lehnsherr (also known as Magneto), a mutant who blames humanity for the death of his family during the Holocaust. Magneto does not believe that humans and mutants can live together in peace. He builds a machine that turns humans into mutants.