Beginners explores themes of love, identity, and grief through the story of a man whose elderly father comes out as gay. The narrative focuses on the father's newfound gay relationship and its impact on his son. The film does not feature any identifiable transsexual characters or themes.

The movie does not contain any action or adventure elements.

The film "Beginners" is an original screenplay by Mike Mills, inspired by his personal life. It does not adapt pre-existing source material with established characters whose genders could be swapped. The characters based on real individuals maintain their historical gender.

Beginners is an original film, not an adaptation of pre-existing material, a biopic of a historical figure, or a reboot of legacy characters. Therefore, no characters had a canonically or historically established race prior to this film's creation.