The poems in Poems Are Dangerous Necessities tell two stories in one. As a novel, it depicts two main characters, an artist, Modigliani, who writes poetry about his first love, Anna Akhmatova, and creates art inspired by their love affair that began when her husband Nikolai Gumilev took her to Paris on their honeymoon. The second character is a poet who wants to be an artist. He begins to paint after he discovers Modigliani's nudes, his women who would seem unshapely were they clothed.