Karen Blixen returns home from Kenya. Destitute and uneducated, she lives at the mercy of her family. She wishes to be independent and tries to become a writer.

Karen, in the middle of writing her book, wants to travel to London to find the largest publisher in Europe, but the family won't help her finance the trip.

Karen receives a letter from the well-known American writer Dorothy Canfield, who has shown her short stories to an enthusiastic publisher in America.

Concerned about possible criticism of her very un-Danish book, Karen is hesitant to publish it in her home country, and she tries to cope with her ill health.

Karen is writing her book about her years in East Africa, attracting Glydendal's attention; a disappointing review of Seven Gothic Tales troubles Karen.

After seventeen years in Kenya, Karen Blixen has lost everything; she regains the will to live and takes up the writing dreams of her childhood again.