In Galway, 1903, young Nora Barnacle lives with her uncle and her mother. Nora is in love with a young man named Michael "Sonny" Bodkin (Andrew Scott), but her uncle violently disapproves. Despairing of ever finding a life for herself in Galway, Nora moves to Dublin and gets a job as a chambermaid in Finn's Hotel
One day, she meets a bespectacled young man in the street who asks if she'd like to walk out with him some time. Nora is a little wary of him, but eventually agrees, and he introduces himself as "James Joyce".
James and Nora go on a date, which has a rather unexpected climax, from his point of view, when she opens his trousers and gives him a handjob. James is so struck by how confident and at ease she is that he wants to see her again. They begin dating, to the amusement of his friends, one of whom, Cosgrave, regards Nora as too lower-class for the likes of him, but by virtue of that fact, also someone who Really Gets Around.
James soon becomes violently jealous of any of his friends spending time with Nora, and eventually decides that he’ll leave Ireland and pursue his writing career on the continent. He begs Nora to come with him, and she agrees.
After a difficult first night in Trieste, they soon settle in and James gets a job teaching English. Nora becomes pregnant with their son Giorgio, and they’re joined by James’ younger brother Stanislaus (Peter McDonald).
When James has to visit Ireland on business, he has another fit of jealousy and becomes convinced that Giorgio is not his son, but Cosgrave’s. Another friend, Curran, convinces him that it’s not the case, and James and Nora have a torrid exchange of erotic letters.
Back in Trieste, they have a second child, Lucia. James becomes convinced that his friend Prezioso is actually in love with Nora, and not-so-subtly encourages her to have an affair with him, to her exasperation. Eventually his chronic drinking, his dedication to writing and his fits of jealousy cause her to take the kids home to Galway. He comes to find her, and they are reconciled.
This film contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: James, who can really put away the white wine. Possibly verging on Drunken Master in that it doesn’t seem to affect his writing.
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: Nora has a bit of this with James early on, but he quickly lets her know that he has genuine feelings for her.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: James’ attitude to Stannie.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Nora and Jim frequently bicker, but when Stannie drags a drunken Jim home from the bar one night, and loses his temper and starts kicking his older brother, Nora appears in the doorway and gives him a terrifying Death Glare, which makes him stop and apologise.
- Common Law Marriage: James and Nora.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: James is a largely non-violent example of this. The only time he gets violent is when he rounds on Prezioso while he and Nora encounter the man while out walking.
- Cunning Linguist: Nora complains when she and James first arrive in Trieste in the middle of the night that he is this to her: he can speak multiple languages and she is forced to rely on him for everything, which she resents. Later in the film she’s learned to insult him fluently in Italian.
- Informed Ability: We are led to understand that James is a fine singer. However…
- Leitmotif: The song “The Lass of Aughrim”, which James plays on guitar in a bar when Nora is feeling homesick, and she joins in with him. It comes back at the end.
- Lust Object: Nora is this to James, while he’s in Ireland and she’s in Trieste.
- Marry for Love: They don’t actually marry within the film itself but this is why James and Nora get together. Also Truth in Television.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Ewan McGregor’s own Scottish accent frequently shows through his attempt at James’ Dublin accent (which, for the record, is nothing like Joyce’s actual voice.)
- Self-Insert Fic: It’s complicated. Nora comes to suspect that the reason why James wants her to have an affair with Prezioso is so that he’ll be able to write about it. She may well be right.
- Sex Is Liberation: It's implied that Nora's direct and uncomplicated attitude to sex was this for James.
- Sex Montage: A rare example involving just one couple, when James and Nora are writing extremely sexy letters to each other and masturbating to them.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: When James and Nora are in Dublin in the first part of the film, he wears drab brown clothes and a cap, and she wears mostly black clothes, in keeping with her menial job as a chambermaid. Once they're established in Trieste, he starts wearing white linen suits and a broad-brimmed hat and she has fancier and fancier outfits, including increasingly nice hats.
