The famous literary romance of Elizabeth Barret and Robert Browning given a funny and poignant slant – being told from the viewpoint of Elizabeth's adored spaniel, Flush, who bore his mistress's virtual imprisonment as an "invalid" in her father's house, and shared her dramatic flight abroad and subsequent happy married life.

Flush belonged to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and followed its mistress from her confinement in her father's house in Wimpole Street to Italy, where she eloped with her lover and fellow poet Robert Browning. As she tells Flush's story, Woolf also tells the story of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning's romance, and of her progress from an invalid to a woman at the peek of her powers.