马丁(卢卡·马里内利 Luca Marinelli 饰)出生在贫穷的家庭之中,没有上过几年的学,如今和姐姐过着相依为命的日子,并且成为了一名终日漂泊在茫茫大海之上的水手。一天,马丁邂逅了名为爱莲娜(杰西卡·塞西 Jessica Cressy 饰)的千金大小姐,爱莲娜将法国诗人波德莱尔的诗集借给马丁看。马丁这辈子从来都没有看过这样的文字,一下子便被深深的吸引了,在海上漂泊的漫长时光里,他如饥似渴的吸收着这些知识,并且渐渐开始产生了自己写作的念头。 马丁失业了,借此机会,他决定正式走上写作的道路。他不断的投稿,又不断的遭遇退稿,唯一没有想过的就是放弃。最终,马丁的小说被出版了,这令他收获了无数的名誉和财富。After saving Arturo, a young scion of the industrial middle class, from a beating, the sailor Martin Eden is invited to the boy's family home. Here he meets Elena, Arturo's beautiful sister, and falls in love with her at first sight. The cultured and refined young woman becomes not only the object of Martin's affections but also a symbol of the social status he aspires to achieve. At the cost of enormous efforts and overcoming the obstacles represented by his humble origin, Martin pursues the dream of becoming a writer. Under the influence of the elderly intellectual Russ Brissenden, he gets involved in socialist circles, bringing him into conflict with Elena and her bourgeois world.