The wife of a poet documents her marriage of five years as it tumultuously unravels during one summer in Maine.

A boy desires a special magazine.

A writer receiving feedback from a professor on their drafts is sure that the person on the other end is a man. They wrestle with their own hidden identities until the end of their literary relationship comes with an unexpected revelation.

When a Soviet state official attempts to coerce a celebrated poet into apologizing for a political joke he made, the official gets a taste of his own predatory medicine at the hand of the poet's vengeful wife.

The same year sisters Bess and Maureen enter their neighborhood school after the passing of their mother and tutor, their next door neighbor also returns—having been sent away to jail for decades for serial rape.

Two lovers share their passions and dreams, dancing toward the edge of a cliff by the sea - and perhaps over it.

A college professor pays a famous poet to guest lecture at his university. Although this encounter improves his professional standing, his personal life suffers as a result of the poet's behavior.

Estranged siblings work out their complex feelings about life, faith, and work through unsent correspondence. As they set out on different paths, they attempt to reconcile conflicting emotions amid the rocky intellectual and theological spheres of seventeenth-century France.

A professor tries to convey to his students the magnitude of the most perfectly crafted poem ever written in the English language: “Lycidas.”