While studying at Oxford University in 1914, a young T.S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe) meets and is instantly smitten with Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Miranda Richardson). The two elope after a whirlwind romance, and it isn't until then that T.S. Eliot sees the darker side of his wife. Viv suffers from an extreme hormonal imbalance that causes wild mood swings and odd behavior. While she occasionally acts as a muse for the poet, her inconsistent behavior may prove too much for him to bear.