Baroness Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) moves to Africa with her husband Bror/Hans (Klaus Maria Brandauer) to start a coffee plantation. Karen doesn't really feel love for Bror. Instead, she's fascinated with an adventurous man named Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford). Throughout many years of struggle, Karen finds herself changing in many ways. The events that happen eventually lead her to write several books under the pen name Isak Dinesen.