One morning in the late Middle Ages, in Florence, in the year 1265, a child is born who will forever change the way people see hell, poetry, and even their own lives. His name is Durante Alighieri, known simply as Dante. He grows up in a flourishing city, yet torn apart by political strife. The young Dante is drawn to poetry, scholastic philosophy, and the art of governance. But an apparently ordinary event will shape his destiny: the encounter with Beatrice Portinari, a girl close to his age, who will become his ideal of pure love and divine beauty. Even though he will see her only a few times and lose her early, Beatrice remains the center of his inner life and his work.

Time passes, and Dante becomes involved in the life of the city. He even rises to the position of magistrate in the government of Florence. But the city is torn apart by factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and later, by the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante, a White Guelph, falls victim to these internal wars. In 1302, he is condemned to exile. He will never return to Florence. He wanders through northern Italy, living on the hospitality of a few patrons. Exile becomes his sorrow, but also a source of creative strength. During those years, he begins to write what will become the Divine Comedy—the ultimate poem of the Middle Ages.