In 1857, eighteen-year-old English actress Ellen Ternan (Felicity Jones) is noticed by forty-five-year-old writer Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) while she is performing at London's Haymarket Theatre. Soon after, he casts her, along with her mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and sister Maria (Perdita Weeks), in a performance of ''The Frozen Deep'' by Wilkie Collins at Dickens's Free Trade Hall in Manchester. At a party following the performance, the famous author and the actress share a brief moment alone.