Timberlake Wertenbaker adapts the A.S. Byatt novel into 15 short radio plays. It charts the relationship between two fictional Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte, as revealed to present day academics Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. Following a trail of clues from various letters and journals, they attempt to uncover the truth about Ash and LaMotte’s past before it is discovered by rival colleagues.