England, early 20th century. The future writer and philologist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) and three of his schoolmates create a strong bond between them as they share the same passion for literature and art, a true fellowship that strengthens as they grow up, but the outbreak of World War I threatens to shatter it.

Twenty years old and from Leicester, Nina moves to North London in 1982, to care for the two young boys of a working single mother, George, the editor of a London literary review.