It is a modern retelling of the verse play Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897 by French author Edmond Rostand. The screenplay was written by Martin.

In the film, Martin plays C.D. Bales, the fire chief in a small American town. Bales is witty, acrobatic, and skilled at many things, but he has a very large nose --- actually an unrealistically long one. He loves the beautiful Roxanne Kowalski (Hannah), but she is infatuated with Chris, a handsome but dull fireman. As in the play, Bales is touchy about his perceived ugliness and speaks to the object of adoration the only way he can: he writes expressions of love and allows Chris to present them to Roxanne as if they were his own. Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Roxanne_%28film%29