At one time, men ruled the stage, playing both male and female roles. One day, a woman's talent forces the public to acknowledge a woman's place is, indeed, on the stage.

Ned (Billy Crudup) is an actor in London during the Restoration. Women weren't allowed onstage at the time, so men played all the female roles. The "stage beauty," the man playing the female lead, had groupies of both sexes clamoring for his (her?) affections. His stage dresser, Maria, a secretly besotted Claire Danes, watches him religiously and knows his current character, Othello's Desdemona, inside out. One night in a pub, she nearly stops time with her heartfelt, evocative rendition of Desdemona's death scene, almost single-handedly bringing to an end men's monopoly on the stage. When Ned discovers his hold on the audience has been permanently usurped, it's Maria's loyalty and affection that helps him find his new path.