When Robin (Andrew Garfield) is struck down by polio at the age of twenty-eight, he is confined to a hospital bed and given only a few months to live. With the help of Diana's (Claire Foy's) twin brothers (Tom Hollander) and the groundbreaking ideas of inventor Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville), Robin and Diana dare to escape the hospital ward to seek out a full and passionate life together, raising their young son, travelling, and devoting their lives to helping other polio patients. — Bleecker Street In 1958 in Kenya, Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield) falls ill from polio at the age of twenty-eight, not long after meeting and marrying his wife Diana (Claire Foy). Paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without the assistance of a respirator, he is given only three months to live. He is repatriated to Britain. Initially he is depressed, refusing to see his wife or newborn son, Jonathan, and wishing to be removed from life support. However, Diana is persistent and slowly his spirits improve. When Diana realizes she can provide for his daily care and suggests they move Robin and the respirator home, Robin brightens considerably. Over the strenuous objections of the hospital's administrator Dr. Entwistle (Jonathan Hyde) (who tells Diana that he will die if without the ventilator for two minutes) and with the help of some of the other doctors and nurses, Robin is brought home and meets his son. In 1957, Robin Cavendish, a dashing, charismatic young Englishman, meets a beautiful woman named Diana Blacker and swiftly decides to marry her. He takes his new wife out to Kenya, where he works as a tea broker. But within months, he is struck down by polio, which leaves him completely paralysed from the neck down, and dependent on a respirator to 'breathe' for him.