The Presence of Love

The film opens with Dr. Jocelyn 'Joss' Lambert teaching a class on William Wordsworth, emphasizing the emotional power of poetry. Despite her teaching success, her academic career is at a crossroads; her latest research paper was rejected by the Literary Review, and she has only two weeks to resubmit it to secure a tenure-track position. Her friend Gwen presents her with a pre-planned trip to Cornwall, a gift left by Joss's late mother, Carol, to be opened on Joss's 35th birthday. Joss, who suffers from severe anxiety, is hesitant but decides to honor her mother's wish to visit the family's ancestral farm. Upon arriving in Cornwall, Joss is nearly hit by a car because she is looking the wrong way on the road; she is rescued by Daniel Carter, the man who runs the farm where she is staying. Daniel is a former London finance professional who returned home to help his mother, Merryn, manage the struggling estate. Joss settles into the guest cottage, which was once her mother's childhood home. She soon meets Daniel’s young daughter, Tegan, and notices the girl is struggling with reading and writing. Drawing on her mother’s history with dyslexia, Joss recognizes similar signs in Tegan and offers to help her with a poem for the upcoming literary festival. As Joss struggles to write her own academic paper, she and Daniel grow closer. He takes her to a scenic cliffside, where Joss suffers a panic attack, revealing her history of anxiety stemming from a childhood car accident that killed her father. Daniel comforts her, sharing his own trauma regarding his ex-wife, who abandoned him and Tegan years prior. Meanwhile, a subplot involves Daniel’s plan to save the farm by installing wind turbines, a move his traditionalist mother, Merryn, vehemently opposes. Merryn is initially cold toward Joss, fearing her son will get his heart broken by another woman who will eventually leave. Joss uses unconventional methods to help Tegan, including 'poetry dancing' and mind-mapping, which helps the girl find her voice. Merryn eventually softens toward Joss after discovering a box of Carol Penberthy’s (Joss’s mother) old treasures in the mill, including a book of poetry with handwritten notes. This discovery helps Joss feel a profound connection to her mother. Realizing that the pressure of the tenure track is the source of her unhappiness, Joss decides to withdraw her application and stay in the moment. At the literary festival, Tegan bravely recites 'The Presence of Love' by Samuel Coleridge, dedicating it to Joss. Though Joss prepares to board a train back to London, Daniel intercepts her at the station. Using a quote from the Rolling Stones—'You can't always get what you want, but you get what you need'—he asks her to stay. Joss agrees to stay in Cornwall to help run the festival and explore a future with Daniel, finally embracing the 'romantic' life she previously only studied in books.