The novel takes place during the action of Shakespeare's play. Ophelia narrates the work in first person, relaying her thoughts on that which is familiar to the reader of Hamlet. It is an interesting touch in that it provides a new look at a classic through different eyes.
Where Dating Hamlet differs is in the plot. Ophelia discovers early on that her father actually is not Polonius. This information comes to her from the ghost of her mother, which visits during what reads as a drug-induced hallucination. Ophelia and Laertes, we learn, were sired by the gravedigger, who had been intimate with their mother before her marriage to Polonius. This changes considerably Ophelia's feelings for Polonius, especially after his death at Hamlet's hand.
Ophelia and Hamlet are romantically involved, but to a much greater degree than described in Hamlet. This allows the plot to take a fantastic turn. Ophelia, Hamlet and later Laertes all become part of a grand conspiracy: to kill Claudius. Their mutual plan involves antic dispositions and feigned madness. In a twist taken from Mission: Impossible, the conspirators use poisons that mimic death in order to fool observers into thinking first that Ophelia has drowned. She does not; it is part of the plan. The poison is used to full effect in the duel scene, when Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet each "die." Fortinbras arrives at Elsinore and is given a full recounting of the happenings by Ophelia, disguised as a young boy. The bodies are carried away, some to be revived with the poison's antidote, one to be buried in the earth.
As the novel concludes, we are left with Ophelia and Hamlet debating where their journey should take them. Several allusions to other Shakespearean works surface, eliciting smiles and perhaps a chuckle from the reader. The work ends as a tragedy never would: with characters living "happily ever after."
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