The film traces two parallel narratives. In one, Hawking's body falls apart and so, eventually, does his marriage, for reasons that are partly philosophical—Hawking is an atheist, his wife a Christian—but mostly emotional. Wilde is overwhelmed by the physical demands of taking care of her husband and three (yes, three) children, and Hawking, at least initially, is not terribly sympathetic to her plight. They drift apart. She ends up with her church's choirmaster and he with Mason.