In 1891, Delahaye visits Verlaine with news of Arthur Rimbaud’s death. Before dying, Rimbaud told Delahaye that he had left his final poem in Africa. Delahaye proposes that the two men travel there to find it, and their search opens the story of Rimbaud’s turbulent youth.

In 1871, seventeen-year-old Rimbaud lives in Charleville and dreams of becoming a visionary through poetry. After receiving no replies from the writers he contacts, he discovers Verlaine’s work through his friend Delahaye and sends the poet a letter with his own verses. Verlaine, suffering from creative despair, is overwhelmed by Rimbaud’s talent and invites him to Paris.

Rimbaud is disappointed by the complacency of Parisian literary society and openly mocks its poets. Verlaine shares his contempt, and the two abandon Paris for London in pursuit of a life devoted entirely to poetry. Their early exhilaration gives way to poverty and conflict when publishers reject Rimbaud’s manuscript. Verlaine suggests finding work, but Rimbaud refuses to sacrifice his writing time. During a violent quarrel, Rimbaud stabs Verlaine’s hand with a pen.

Although they separate, neither can escape the other. They reunite, but Rimbaud again condemns Verlaine’s weakness and failure to understand him. Their confrontation ends when Verlaine shoots Rimbaud in the hand. The relationship collapses, and Rimbaud renounces poetry, leaving for Africa in search of real suffering rather than what he now calls the romantic lie of verse.

Years later, Delahaye and Verlaine reach Africa and discover Rimbaud’s buried notebook. It contains no conventional poetry, only practical entries recording his work, earnings, illness, and daily hardships. Delahaye refuses to accept it as the final poem, but Verlaine recognizes that these stark records constitute Rimbaud’s truest poetry. In the notebook, Rimbaud declares that he will never take his own life and will embrace suffering as long as he remains alive. The musical ends as Rimbaud discovers true poetry in an unknown realm beyond the life and language he once knew.