During his years in Cuba, the happiest of his life, Hemingway spends his days fishing and enjoying life’s simple pleasures until he falls under the spell of a beautiful, young Italian girl, Adriana Ivancich. Though she's far too young for him, he falls desperately in love with her and she becomes his muse, who, along with his friend, the sea captain Gregorio Fuentes, inspires him to write The Old Man and the Sea. When Adriana returns to Italy and Hemingway loses his home and library in Cuba, he comes unraveled completely.