One evening in 1891 two friends who are American actresses living in London, Marian Lea and Elizabeth Robins, sit amongst books discussing Ibsen, Norwegian culture, and its bohemian movement. They keenly discuss what they glean from the Munich reviews of Ibsen's new play, Hedda Gabler. While attempting to mount the first English version of the play, the two women and their friends come up against multiple barriers as they obsess over who Hedda really is and what inspired Ibsen to write his new masterpiece.