Free-spirited artist Richard (Kenneth Branagh) finds himself in the employ of Jane (Helena Bonham Carter) when he is forced to do community service after leaping from a building with a rickety homemade glider strapped to his back. Jane, a young woman with a degenerative neurological disease, uses a wheelchair for mobility and a voice synthesizer to communicate. Through this device, she implores Richard to help her in her quest to lose her virginity before she dies.