It is 1818 in Hampstead Village on the outskirts of London. The poet Charles Brown lives in one half of the house, the family Dilkes in the other. Through the connection with the Dilkes, the fatherless family Brawne knows Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown and Brawne's oldest daughter, Fanny, do not like each other. She finds him arrogant and rude; he feels that she is a pretentious flirt, only knows how to sew (admittedly good, since she does all her own fashionable clothes) and expresses opinions on subjects of which she knows nothing. Uncertain fighting poet John Keats lives with his friend Mr. Brown. Miss Brawne and Mr. Keats have a mutual attraction, but their relationship is slow in part because Mr. Brown does everything to keep the two apart. Other obstacles face the couple, including their eventual overwhelming passion for each other clouding their view of what the other is doing, Mr. Keats' struggling career that offers him little in the way of money security (the wife Brawne does not give consent to marry) and health problems that had killed Mr. Keats' brother Tom's life earlier.