The rebellious teenage dropout, Emelia Conan Doyle, believes herself to be a descendant of
Arthur Conan Doyle. She takes on a job as a cleaner in a seaside hotel owned by Jonathan Fischer. Jonathan is a writer from Germany who has struggled with writer's block since his successful first novel,
The Cliff House, was published 21 years before. He lives in the hotel with his wife Joa and two daughters, Beth, 17, and Posy, 6. Jonathan is constantly sequestered in the attic working ineffectually on his writing, leaving the hotel to be run by Joa. Their marriage is stormy, as Joa is unhappy about Jonathan's lack of success in his profession and his disconnected parenting. Meanwhile, Emelia has lived with her grandparents since her mother committed suicide. On her first day of work, Emelia catches Jonathan masturbating in the attic. She meets Beth, who is applying to study medicine at the
University of Oxford. Beth invites Emilia to dinner with the family, during which Emelia reveals that she is writing a novel but is struggling to live up to the Conan Doyle name. Later, Jonathan offers Emilia creative writing lessons. They conduct their lessons secretly in the attic. One day, Jonathan drives Emelia to the grave of Arthur Conan Doyle. The two eventually begin a sexual relationship. Meanwhile, Emelia teaches Beth to explore her rebellious side and the two become best friends. Emelia accompanies Beth to Oxford for her entrance interview. On the first night they go out for a drink and end up partying with other students. Beth has casual sex with one of the men. They return to her accommodation the next morning to find out that the interview has been moved up to that day. Beth exits the interview feeling nervous, but receives encouragement from Emelia. After returning from Oxford, Emelia begins feeling guilty about her affair with Jonathan and starts distancing herself from him. She also deals with the death of her grandmother. Days after the funeral, Beth falls ill, which Emelia suspects to be morning sickness. Emelia gets her a pregnancy test kit. As she drops off the test kit in Beth's room, Jonathan calls her to the attic. Emelia tells Jonathan she has given up trying to write a novel and admonishes him for not living a single day since writing
The Cliff House. Meanwhile, Joa catches Beth with the completed pregnancy test, which indicates she is not pregnant. Emelia returns to Beth's room while Joa angrily informs Jonathan about Beth's sexual activity, and chastises his parenting again. A disheartened Jonathan admits his affair with Emelia. Enraged, Joa yells "... you have been fucking our daughter's best friend?", which is overheard by Beth. Joa kicks Jonathan out of the house. The following day at school, Emelia tries to reconcile with Beth, but Beth rejects her overtures, and tells her she is not a Conan Doyle. That night, Emelia questions her grandfather about this, and he reveals that her mother lied to her about being a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle. However, he encourages her to pursue her dream of writing, explaining that the Conan Doyle name was an
albatross around her neck which has now been lifted. Jonathan gives Emelia his laptop and encourages her to continue writing. She begins writing her novel using the laptop. One day, while having her work printed at a copy shop, she sees Beth (who is being driven to Oxford by Jonathan) wearing Emelia's "I Put Out" top. Emelia smiles and waves, but Beth only looks back coldly and quickly gets back into the car. In the car, Beth looks at her shirt and smiles. Emelia rides off on her bicycle with the printed draft of her novel titled "Albatross". ==Cast==