Unrequited love is difficult to handle in the best of times, with the best of people, but when that lover is a german romantic poet, the outlook is bleak. In Massenet’s Werther, the village girl, Charlotte is engaged to be married to Albert, but becomes enamoured with, and edges with falling in love with the handsome poet, Werther. Unfortunately for Werther, Charlotte decides to honor her commitment to Albert, causing Werther to spiral into terminal depression, ultimately choosing to end his life if Charlotte was not in it. Charlotte arrives just after the gunshot, and professes her love to Werther as he breathes his last breath. The Collier adaptation begins 70 years later, when Charlotte is an old woman, as she begins to remember the day that she met Werther, the love of her life.