The film, which is the feature helming debut of noted Australian stage director Neil Armfield, is based on the prize-winning novel by Luke Davies and was adapted for the screen by Davies and Armfield. In the film, recent Oscar-nominee Ledger stars as Dan, a charming but reckless young poet who has fallen in love with Candy (Cornish), a beautiful young art student from a comfortable middle-class family who is attracted to the bohemian lifestyle that Dan has long since embraced. In order to get closer to Dan, Candy, whose previous drug use has been casually experimental, starts shooting up. Their passionate relationship then alternates between bursts of ecstatic oblivion and bouts of despair and self-destruction. Hooked as much on heroin as one another, their story becomes a love triangle – a boy, a girl, and a drug.