What is One Day about? Netflix series explained

One Day is a new romantic drama that drops on Netflix this week, but what is the show about?

David Nicholls published his novel One Day in 2009, and it quickly became a literary phenomenon, with it feeling like everyone was reading the book that summer.

A movie inevitably followed in 2011, with Lone Scherfig directing from a script by Nicholls, and Ann Hathaway and Jim Sturgess playing the story’s star-crossed lovers.

Now Netflix is getting in on the act, via a series that launches on the streamer this week – February 8, 2024. Below are details of what the show is about, so beware of mild SPOILERS ahead…

What is One Day about? Netflix series explained

One Day revolves around a pair of friends – Emma and Dexter – who fall in and out of love over a period of 20 years. The central conceit is that the story visits them once a year – on July 15, aka St. Swithin’s Day.

Here’s how the book describes the high-concept premise: “15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows?”

Nicole Taylor, Anna Jordan, Vinay Patel, and Bijan Sheibani have adapted the material for Netflix, with the show’s synopsis a little more detailed:

“It’s July 15, 1988, graduation night for Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew. Although uni’s coming to an end, the two students speak for the very first time that day and go their separate ways the following morning. Where will they be on this one ordinary day the next year, and the year after that, and every year that follows? Each episode finds Dex and Em one year older on this one particular date as they grow and change, move together and apart, and experience joy and heartbreak.”

Ambika Mod – best known for I Hate Suzie and This is Going to Hurt – plays Emma. While Leo Woodall – so memorable in Season 2 of The White Lotus – is Dexter.

One Day premieres on Netflix this Friday – February 8, 2024.