With her permission, Death removes Emily Dickinson from the comfort of her Amherst home, to a severe contemporary setting, to confront her with a series of aesthetic and personal challenges, thus shaping her into the great poet she longs to become. The film illustrates, through drama, image, and sound, the tumultuous progress of her soul towards self-discovery, where she unearths the fundamental laws of poetic creation. Death becomes the medium through which she appreciates the divine nature of the poetic act. The central theme is the act of listening, whereby the poet's psyche is transformed into ' the living nerve of all mankind'.