In 1944, Florence Foster Jenkins is a New York City socialite heiress who founded the Verdi Club to celebrate her love of music. St. Clair Bayfield, a British Shakespearean actor, is her husband and manager. Florence lives in a grand hotel suite, while Bayfield lives in an apartment with his Mistress (lover), Kathleen Weatherley. Florence suffers from long-term syphilis, contracted from her first husband.