"The Ballad of Sylvia and Ted" tells the story of the early days and then the meeting, marriage and separation of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The three protagonists described here - Sylvia, the wounded, ambitious poet; Ted the lover of freedom and nature; and Assia Wevill, the woman who came between them and suffered for her passion - are brought together in a scene of shifting perspectives. In vivid prose, the author takes the reader beyond the familiar outlines of the pair's legend, from the scarlet lipstick and headband Sylvia wore on the night they first met, to the yards of red corduroy curtains left unfinished at her death.