The final curtain is closing on the Second World War, and Hana, a nurse, stays behind in an abandoned Italian villa to tend to her only remaining ward. Rescued by Bedouins from a burning plane, he is her English patient, anonymous, damaged beyond recognition and haunted by his memories of passion and betrayal. The only clue Hana has to his past is the one thing he clung on to through the fire - a copy of Herodotus, covered with hand-written notes describing a painful and ultimately tragic love affair.