Roland Michell is a laid-back American scholar who has come to London to research the 19th century English poet Randolph Henry Ash. The present year, 2000, marks the centenary of the discovery of Ash's work. While examining a first edition of one of Ash's volumes, Roland discovers some original letters which hint at the possibility that Ash, contrary to the public impression of his marital fidelity, may actually have had an affair with another famed poet of the time, Miss Christabel La Motte, a woman believed by her biographers to have lived exclusively with her partner Blanche. Confronted with this startling, revolutionary and, perhaps, priceless piece of information, Roland sets out to unravel the mystery.
He enlists the help of the sceptical British academic Maud Bailey, an expert on the life and work of Christabel La Motte, and also a distant descendant. The two embark on a journey to unravel the truth surrounding the poets' forbidden love. But as Roland and Maud track the elusive romance across the British countryside to Lincoln and Whitby, the two scholars soon find themselves tangled in a love affair of their own.
The narrative moves seamlessly between past and present to portray the parallel love stories in this beautiful and passionate adaption of the Booker Prize winning novel by A S Byatt.
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