A little girl in Stratford-upon-Avon goes to bed that July day in 1596 due to an unexpected fever. Hamnet, her identical twin brother, looks for assistance everywhere. Why isn't anyone home? Agnes, their mother, is more than a mile away in the herb garden she tends. In London, their father is employed. That Hamnet won't make it through the week is a secret to neither parent. The name of one of the most well-known plays ever written, Hamnet, was inspired by the son of a well-known playwright, a youngster whose life has all but been forgotten.