My Oxford Year might look like a dreamy study-abroad romance, but by the end, it hits you with something far deeper and heartbreaking. The Netflix drama, starring Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest, takes you through the cobbled streets of Oxford and into a love story that’s as fleeting as it is powerful. And its ending? Let’s break it down.

Anna De La Vega is an ambitious American who arrives at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship to study poetry. Her plan is simple: spend a year in England, then head back to New York to launch a high-profile political career. However, her plan starts to wobble the moment she meets Jamie Davenport, the charming poetry professor with a knack for making the everyday feel extraordinary.

Their connection is instant, but Jamie keeps things light, insisting it is all temporary. The reason becomes heartbreakingly clear when Anna learns he has cancer and has chosen not to pursue risky experimental treatment. He wants to live the time he has left without hospital rooms and uncertainty. It is a choice that forces Anna to confront her own priorities.

She could walk away. Instead, she stays, turning down her dream job to be with him. The film leans into the quiet intimacy of their relationship, the shared jokes, poetry readings, and moments that feel both warm and weighted. Every scene carries the unspoken truth that their time together is running out.

The final act of My Oxford Year delivers the emotional blow. Jamie’s health collapses when he catches pneumonia. With Anna by his side, he decides how he wants his final days to play out. Their long-imagined trip across Europe, to Paris, Venice, and Amsterdam, remains a dream. Jamie dies in Anna’s arms, leaving her to decide how to move forward.

In the closing montage, Anna takes that trip alone, visiting each city they had planned to see together. It is quiet, bittersweet, and laced with small nods to their relationship. There is no dramatic farewell, just the sense that she is keeping his memory alive in the places they dreamed of.

If you have read Julia Whelan’s novel, you will notice the big change: in the book, Jamie survives, and the trip actually happens with him. The movie trades that for a more bittersweet ending, one that aligns with Jamie’s wish to live life on his own terms.

The final moments bring Anna back to Oxford, where she steps into Jamie’s old role as a poetry professor. In her first class, she celebrates with cake, which was a small but heartfelt tradition of his, showing that she is not just honouring his memory but carrying forward the way he saw the world.

My Oxford Year does not give you a neat, happily-ever-after. Instead, it leaves you with a story about love, loss, and the unexpected ways people can change your life, even if they are present in it only briefly. It is as much about what comes after goodbye as it is about the romance itself, and that’s what makes the ending linger long after the credits roll.