Gwyneth Paltrow stars as legendary American poet Sylvia Plath opposite Daniel Craig as Plath's husband, British poet Laureate Ted Hughes. The film explores the source and nature of creative genius, and the essence of love in all its madness and passion. Ted and Sylvia were a sensual, volatile, and brilliant couple who emerged as two of the most influential writers of the 20th Century.

The Film begins in 1956. Sylvia is in England on a Fulbright Scholarship when she meets Ted. The attraction is immediate and mutual. It is a meeting not only of the minds, but of an intense physicality as well. Within four months, they are married. When her studies are completed, Sylvia is offered a teaching post back in America. She accepts, and the couple relocates. A working wife, Sylvia must also tend to her unique voice or risk losing it. The newly published Ted attracts the attention of the literary world, along with the attentions of admiring women.

Returning to England in late 1959, Sylvia and Ted attempt to renew their commitment, first with the birth of one child and then another. But as the marriage frays anew and Ted's literary stature overshadows her own, Sylvia's creative impulses surge. She funnels her fury and passion into her work, and her writing begins to flow forth in unstoppable bursts. "I really feel like God is speaking through me," she exults. Her destiny - and Ted's, inextricably intertwined with hers - is at hand ...