Joan Donovan is a 22-year-old farmer’s daughter living in rural County Cork, Ireland in 1963. Raised under strict Roman Catholic parents, she possesses an insatiable, childlike curiosity about the world that extends dangerously into forbidden territory. Her soft, lulling Cork accent and gentle demeanor belie a sharp intelligence that connects patterns quickly and remembers everything. She’s seen the raw mechanics of nature on the farm - births, deaths, mating - but her understanding of human intimacy is purely biological. When a German lens maker moves to town from Stuttgart, Joan experiences unfamiliar feelings she desperately wants to understand. She doesn’t know euphemisms or “dirty words,” only direct observation and an obsessive need to learn what her body is trying to tell her.