Julia Mitchell (Melanie Zanetti), a timid graduate student, enters the prestigious Dante Studies program at the University of Toronto. Her seminar is taught by Professor Gabriel Emerson (Giulio Berruti), a brilliant but notoriously cold and intimidating Dante specialist. Unbeknownst to Gabriel, he and Julia shared a brief, magical encounter years earlier that deeply shaped Julia's life, though Gabriel's past trauma and substance abuse have erased it from his memory. As Gabriel alternates between harsh academic discipline and intense physical attraction toward Julia, the two navigate strict university policy prohibiting faculty-student relationships while old flames and unaddressed past secrets surface.