London 1818: A secret love affair begins between 23-year-old English poet, John Keats (Ben Whishaw), and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), an outspoken student of high fashion.

This unlikely pair begins at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she is unimpressed, not only by his poetry but by literature in general. However, when Fanny hears that Keats is nursing his seriously ill younger brother, her efforts to help touch Keats, and when she asks him to teach her about poetry, he agrees.

When Fanny's alarmed mother and Keats' best friend finally awake to their atttachment, the relationship has an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers are swept deeply into powerful new sensations.