It is 1841 when Patty Clare is married to John Clare: peasant poet, genius and madman. Travelling home one day, Patty is shocked to find her husband sitting, footsore and weary, on the side of the road, having absconded from an asylum in Essex over 80 miles away. Delighted to have him back in her life, she is devastated when it becomes clear that John thinks himself married twice to both Patty and his childhood sweetheart, Mary Joyce, to whom he writes long and beautiful poems. Patty loves John deeply but he seems lost to her and obsessed with an idealised memory of a woman that she cannot match. Driven to distraction with jealousy and by her large, unruly family she turns to journal writing for an escape. But, with John descending further into his own delusions, can she ever restore his true identity, and will she ever be able to conquer her own anger and hurt and find it in herself to forgive?