Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.

In 14th-century France, Aliénor breaks with the codes governing girls’ behavior and does as she wishes. The King of France grants her the hand of her childhood love, but her new husband deserts her immediately after the ceremony. Undeterred, she sets out after him, traveling to Siena to bring him back.

True tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset. But their affair falls apart during an excursion to Venice, Italy where Musset is distracted by drugs and Sand by a handsome doctor.