Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (Ricci) was the brilliant, beautiful and talented Southern Belle who became an icon of the wild, flamboyant Jazz Age in the 20s. There was wild parties and wicked jazz, and dissolute artists, alcoholism, adultery, dashed dreams and mental illness as well. 'Z' starts before Zelda meets the unpublished writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and moves through their passionate, turbulent love affair and their marriage as the celebrity couple of their time.