The film explores the poet's life, exposing fundamental facts of Dove's childhood and formative years growing up in Akron, Ohio in the 1950s and during the turbulent 1960s.

Each book, identified with Roman numerals, targets a different aspect in the life and whereabouts of Rita Dove, each of them introduced by the poet reading a poem significant to the theme.

[3] Each part is made of a series of in-depth, on-camera interviews with Poet Laureate Rita Dove, which were conducted and recorded between September 2012 and October 2013.

[8] Rita Dove premiered at The Paramount, on January 31, 2014,[9] where it was presented as a Martin Luther King Day headliner by the Office for Diversity and Equity, Lifetime Learning, Alumni and Parent Engagement and the Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia.

Both outlets cited the use of family photos and other footage as highlights, with Lawrence A. Garretson of C-Ville Weekly stating that it helped "achieve its own kind of cinematic lyricism—visual poetry that pays homage to Dove's own techniques".