Hamnet

A written prologue states that in Stratford, England, "Hamnet" and "Hamlet" were considered the same name.

William Shakespeare works as a tutor to help pay his family's debt. He leaves his students after seeing Agnes Hathaway summon a hawk with her falconry glove, and they share a moment before he leaves. William's mother, Mary, informs him of rumours that Agnes is the daughter of a forest witch who taught her herbal lore, which Agnes later uses to heal a cut on William's forehead. Agnes spends much time in the forest, where there is a mysterious cave. William visits Agnes in the forest. When she asks for a story, he recounts the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, delighting her. Agnes predicts William's future by holding his hand at his thumb's base, foretelling a successful future for him, and two children at her deathbed. The pair consummate their relationship, impregnating Agnes, leading her family to disown her and forcing her to move in with William. The two marry, and Agnes gives birth to Susanna in the woods.

William retaliates when his father, John, beats him for rejecting manual labour. Seeing William's frustration with writing, Agnes suggests that her brother Bartholomew send him to London for a theatrical career, leaving her and Susanna in Stratford. A while later, a pregnant Agnes tries to go outside to give birth, but William's family restrain her in the house, where she gives birth to twins Hamnet and Judith, the latter appearing stillborn. Remembering her mother's death, Agnes demands to hold the baby despite superstition, and Judith awakes.

11 years later, a now-successful William returns intermittently while the children grow up very close. The twins still believe they look similar and frequently try to trick their family members by wearing the other's clothes. Agnes foretells that Hamnet, who wishes to join his father's theatre company, will flourish. Agnes' hawk dies and is buried; she tells the children to make a wish to the hawk's spirit, who she says will carry them in its heart.

Returning to London, William wanders the streets during an outbreak of bubonic plague and watches a puppet show depicting the plague carrying people off to death. In Stratford, Judith contracts the plague. Hamnet evokes the tale of the hawk to encourage her and lies beside her, proclaiming he wants to take her place in an attempt to trick death. Judith recovers, but Hamnet falls gravely ill and dies; on his deathbed, he envisions himself on a stage calling for his mother, and Agnes' hawk appears. William rushes home and is distraught to find Hamnet lying in repose. His absence strains his marriage to Agnes as they cope with Hamnet's death. William buys the largest house in Stratford and departs for London again. Agnes holds his hand and says she now sees nothing. William rehearses Hamlet in London, but is frustrated with his cast's lack of passion. In despair, he leans over the edge of a jetty on the River Thames and recites his "To be, or not to be" monologue from the play.

Agnes' stepmother Joan shows her a playbill for a production of Hamlet in London and upbraids her for marrying William, but Agnes rebukes her. Agnes and Bartholomew travel to London to see William. Finding him absent from his home, they resolve to attend the first performance of Hamlet at the Globe Theatre. Agnes is initially offended at her son's name being profaned. Upon seeing William in the role of the ghost of Hamlet's father, she realizes that the play is a tribute to Hamnet, and is moved to tears by the scene between Hamlet and his father.

Backstage, William, having noticed Agnes, breaks down in tears while listening to the play and returns to watch her from the wings. The play progresses through scenes of sword-fighting, fulfilling Hamnet's dream of an action role. During the scene when Hamlet dies, Agnes reaches forward for the actor's hand, just as she had held William's hand when they first met, and the rest of the audience reaches toward him in turn. She envisions Hamnet on the stage, seen earlier as his dying vision,

now moving from sadness to a smile before disappearing into the backstage through a hole like that of her mystical forest cave she frequented. For the first time since Hamnet's death, Agnes laughs and smiles.