Disguising herself as a man to escape her loveless marriage and enjoy the exclusive freedoms of men, aspiring writer Aemilia Lanier falls in love and runs away with ragged poet William Shakespeare, with whom she secretly writes plays that bring him fame years later.

When legendary poet Dylan Thomas reconnects with Vera, his teenage sweetheart, a romantic rival begins between her and his wife Caitlin. As the woman begin to bond an unusual trio is formed. The threesome live in bliss until Vera's husband, a handsome soldier, returns from fighting in the war and jealousy erupts, threatening the trio's fragile happiness.

Secret Agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as in insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of vergiage. New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Agustus's side. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus's poetry....

Byron charts the rise and fall of an irresistible and devastatingly handsome genius who had it all and threw it all away. It begins as Byron's struggle for acceptance as a poet is reversed by the publication of Childe Harolde's Pilgrimage, which turns him into an overnight success and the toast of London society--the 19th century equivalent of a bad-boy rock star. While disdaining social conventions, he needs money, so marries wealthy pious Annabella...