It is about Jamie, a rising novelist, and his love story to Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress.
The show uses a form of storytelling in which Cathy's story is told in reverse chronological order (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie's is told in chronological order (starting just after the couple have first met).
The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle as their timelines intersect.
The Last Five Years was inspired by Brown's failed marriage to Theresa O'Neill. Did his marriage failed because he married a “Shiksa Goddess” as the song from the show implies? (Shiksa, is in fact a derogatory term for Jewish men marrying a non-Jewish girl). We will find out from Christian.
