Heath Ledger stars as Dan, a charming but reckless young poet who falls in love with Candy (Abbie Cornish), a beautiful young art student from a comfortable middle-class family who is attracted to the bohemian lifestyle that Dan has long since embraced. In order to get closer to Dan, Candy, whose previous drug use has been casually experimental, starts shooting up. Their passionate relationship then alternates between bursts of ecstatic oblivion and bouts of despair and self-destruction. Hooked as much on heroin as on one another, their story becomes a love triangle - a boy, a girl, and a drug.