Charles is married and has a child, but he is immature and lacks the ambition to become a published poet. Charles's wife Vivien works to support the family while Charles stays home to work on his poetry. However, after he finds the painting in the junk shop, he becomes obsessed with the idea that Chatterton continued to live after his reported suicide and puts his own writing aside to find the answers. During this time, Charles has begun to have terrible headaches that only grow worse until the night he collapses in an Indian restaurant.