Patti Smith arrives in New York City with a small suitcase and little money, looking for friends from home who have already moved away.

Smith asks a young stranger named Robert to pretend to be her boyfriend and help her escape an uncomfortable encounter with an older man.

Mapplethorpe shares his artwork with Smith and they talk through the night, falling asleep together in each other's arms just before dawn.

Smith and Mapplethorpe move into a filthy apartment near Pratt, which Mapplethorpe scrubs clean and furnishes with objects scavenged from the street.

Smith sneaks a gravely ill Mapplethorpe out of Hotel Allerton via fire escape and hails a taxi bound for the Chelsea Hotel.

Artist Sandy Daley loans Mapplethorpe his first Polaroid camera, setting Mapplethorpe on the path that leads him to devote himself entirely to photography.

Music manager Danny Fields invites Smith and Mapplethorpe to sit at the exclusive round table in the back room of Max's Kansas City.

Mapplethorpe meets Sam Wagstaff, a wealthy former museum curator who becomes both his financial patron and his romantic partner.

Smith performs her poems at St. Mark's Church with Lenny Kaye on electric guitar, the first time an electric guitar is played there.

Smith records the single 'Hey Joe' and the autobiographical 'Piss Factory' at Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland Studios.

Clive Davis offers Smith a recording contract with Arista Records and Smith assembles her full band to record the album Horses.

Mapplethorpe photographs Smith at Sam Wagstaff's Fifth Avenue penthouse, creating the jacket-slung image that becomes the iconic cover of Horses.

Smith and Mapplethorpe hold their only collaborative show at a Fifth Avenue gallery, combining photography, poetry, and drawing in a shared exhibition.

Smith leaves New York and moves to Detroit to begin her married life with the guitarist Fred Sonic Smith.

Smith learns of Robert Mapplethorpe's death when his youngest brother, Edward, calls her in the morning to deliver the news.

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe meet by chance on the streets of Brooklyn and quickly form an inseparable creative partnership rooted in mutual devotion to art. Together they survive poverty and homelessness before finding refuge at the Chelsea Hotel, where their artistic careers begin to take meaningful shape. Mapplethorpe's photography flourishes under the patronage of wealthy collector Sam Wagstaff, while Smith transitions from poetry readings to rock performance. Smith records her debut album Horses, its iconic cover photograph taken by Mapplethorpe, launching her to widespread fame. They hold a final collaborative exhibition before Smith leaves New York to marry guitarist Fred Sonic Smith and settle in Detroit. Their deep bond endures until Mapplethorpe's death from AIDS in 1989, the news of which reaches Smith by phone from his youngest brother.

The headline events of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe's artistic lives together.

Young Smith visits the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the first time and feels physically transformed by her first encounter with Picasso's work.

Smith gives birth to a child she puts up for adoption, then vows at a statue of Joan of Arc to make something of herself.

Smith discovers an abandoned purse at the bus depot containing $32, giving her just enough money to buy a ticket to New York.

Smith hides in Brentano's bookstore after closing, sleeping in the bathroom and raiding co-workers' pockets for vending machine change.

Mapplethorpe secretly takes acid before meeting Smith's family for Christmas in New Jersey, managing to conceal his state throughout the visit.

Smith gets a job at the prestigious Scribner's bookstore on Fifth Avenue and feels proud to be associated with the historic institution.

Smith watches The Doors perform at the Fillmore East and feels both kinship and contempt for the band's charismatic lead singer.

Smith and Mapplethorpe dress ceremoniously for their second anniversary and take the train to Coney Island to have their photograph taken.

Smith meets the poet Allen Ginsburg at Horn and Hardart's Automat when he pays the extra dime for a sandwich she cannot afford.

Smith and Mapplethorpe take over their neighbor Pigman's entire loft after his death, paying less rent than their room at the Chelsea Hotel.

Sam Shepard buys Smith a black Gibson guitar and the two write the play Cowboy Mouth together overnight, basing its characters on themselves.

Smith travels alone to France and visits Arthur Rimbaud's grave in Charleville but finds herself unable to write the planned monograph.

Mapplethorpe holds his first solo show of Polaroid photographs, distributing a nude self-portrait as an invitation and drawing a strong, receptive crowd.

Smith's song 'Because the Night' reaches number 13 on the Top 40 chart and Mapplethorpe tells her she got famous before him.

After Mapplethorpe's death, Smith walks on a Gulf Coast beach at Easter and composes an elegy song in memory of her friend.

Before arriving in New York, Smith's life is shaped by an early encounter with Picasso's work in a Philadelphia museum and a painful pregnancy that ends with a public vow to make something of herself. She finds her footing working at bookstores and navigating New York's cultural underground alongside Mapplethorpe, building friendships and surviving on almost nothing. Key encounters with performers like Jim Morrison and playwright Sam Shepard steadily push Smith toward rock music, while editors and small presses help her publish her first poetry collections. Mapplethorpe's first solo photography show marks his decisive turn toward the medium that will define his career, supported by the growing resources of his patron Sam Wagstaff. Smith's song 'Because the Night' eventually breaks into the mainstream, giving Mapplethorpe proud cause to tease her for getting famous first. After Mapplethorpe's death, Smith finds a measure of peace on a Gulf Coast beach, composing an elegy song for the friend she has lost.

The formative milestones and supporting moments behind Smith and Mapplethorpe's rise.

Young Smith steals a pin from her sick friend Stephanie's jewelry box and learns the very next day that Stephanie has died.

Smith becomes pregnant at nineteen and resolves in a sudden calm to quit her factory job and leave teaching college, never looking back.

Smith spends her first weeks in New York homeless, sleeping in subway cars, graveyards, and doorways while searching desperately for work.

Mapplethorpe appears at Smith's workplace wearing an oxblood coat and tells her to return to him or he will go to San Francisco and become homosexual.

Thieves break into Smith's Lower East Side apartment and, finding nothing of value, destroy most of the artwork she has created.

From San Francisco, Mapplethorpe writes to Smith describing his sexual experiences with other men while assuring her he still loves her.

A murder occurs outside Smith and Mapplethorpe's apartment door on the night she returns from Paris, prompting Mapplethorpe to insist they leave immediately.

A doctor at the Chelsea Hotel reveals that Mapplethorpe has gonorrhea, trench mouth, and impacted wisdom teeth, and that Smith must be treated too.

After someone at Andy Warhol's Factory asks if she is a folksinger, Smith cuts her long hair short using Keith Richards as her model.

Bob Neuwirth reads Smith's notebook of poems and tells her she needs to stop writing poems and start writing songs instead.

Mapplethorpe tells Smith he has been with a man not for money, and despite feeling hurt, Smith gives him some measure of acceptance.

A disastrous double date with David Croland ends with Croland's abrupt departure, forcing Mapplethorpe to finally confess his affair with Croland to Smith.

Mapplethorpe receives his AIDS diagnosis and Smith separately learns that Sam Wagstaff is also gravely ill with the same disease.

Sam Wagstaff dies, casting a shadow over Mapplethorpe's hopes for his own recovery and deepening his despair about his illness.

Smith visits a dying Mapplethorpe at his loft and writes him a letter thanking him for drawing her into the life of art.

From childhood, Smith's life is marked by moral awakenings and pivotal choices that test her sense of self and purpose, beginning with the guilt of a stolen pin and an unplanned pregnancy that forces her to reinvent herself. Her early weeks of homelessness in New York establish the resilience that defines everything that follows. Mapplethorpe's emerging sexuality creates a crisis in his relationship with Smith, forcing both of them to confront who they truly are to each other, and his time in San Francisco marks a point of no return. After surviving their lowest point in a squalid hotel room, Smith and Mapplethorpe make a vow of loyalty that anchors the rest of their lives even as they drift into separate relationships. As Mapplethorpe's homosexuality fully surfaces through his affair with Croland and Smith is gradually pushed toward rock music by those around her, both find their true paths. Mapplethorpe's AIDS diagnosis and approaching death bring the final, devastating turning point, which Smith faces by sitting with her dying friend and writing him a letter of gratitude and farewell.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that shaped Smith and Mapplethorpe's destinies.