In the summer of 1850, Herman Melville finds himself hounded by creditors, and so he takes his family for a getaway vacation in the Berkshires, where he meets Nathaniel Hawthorne at a picnic—and his life turns upside down. Drawing on the authors' letters and journals, Mark Beauregard crafts a fictionalized account of the love affair that grows out of that afternoon. Already in debt, Melville recklessly borrows money to purchase a local farm in order to remain near Hawthorne, his newfound muse. The two develop a deep connection marked by tensions and estrangements, and feelings both shared and suppressed, even as Melville writes the masterpiece that he will dedicate to his friend: Moby-Dick.