本片是关于两位法国象征派大诗人魏尔伦和兰波的传记片,内容大多都建立在真实的历史记录基础上。 1871年,17岁的诗人兰波(莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥 Leonardo DiCaprio 饰)接受当时已是著名诗人魏尔兰(大卫·休里斯 David Thewlis 饰)的邀请,去往 巴黎。当时魏尔兰已经结婚,妻子家境富有。但他偏偏对这个恃才傲物,举止怪异,放浪不羁的兰波,着迷不已。他因此而抛下妻子,与兰波流浪到伦敦,同居在了一起,过着放纵不羁又贫困潦倒的生活。在疯狂的两年同居生活中,两人相互追逐,彼此伤害,纷争不断。1873年,在最后一次争执中,魏尔兰开枪打伤了兰波逮捕并被判入狱两年。之后兰波一人孤身返乡,四处漂泊,经历繁杂,甚至贩卖军火,最终37岁时病逝于马赛。In 1871, Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), an established poet, invites boy genius Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) to live with Paul and his young pregnant wife, Mathiltde, in her father's home in Paris. Rimbaud's uncouth behavior disrupts the household as well as the insular society of French poets, but Verlaine finds the youth invigorating. Stewed in absinthe and resentment, Verlaine abuses Mathiltde; he and Rimbaud become lovers and abandon her. There are reconciliations and partings with Mathiltde and partings and reconciliations with Rimbaud, until an 1873 incident with a pistol sends one of them to prison. Codas dramatize the poets' final meeting and last illnesses.