Parisian courtesan, Violetta meets the romantic aristocrat Alfredo and finds herself in love for the first time. She abandons her frivolous lifestyle to be with him but his father Germont, charged by the hypocrisy of upper-class society, threatens their future.

In present day East End, an aspiring novelist falls in love with a Ukrainian cleaner whilst his best friend attempts to rekindle his romance with a social climbing sex bomb.