diff --git a/ci/requirements-py37-windows.yml b/ci/requirements-py37-windows.yml
index 24a7f556b2c..fb4b97cde7c 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-py37-windows.yml
+++ b/ci/requirements-py37-windows.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ channels:
 dependencies:
   - python=3.7
   - cftime
+  - nc-time-axis
   - dask
   - distributed
   - h5py
diff --git a/ci/requirements-py37.yml b/ci/requirements-py37.yml
index 1a98e6b285c..4f4d2b1728b 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-py37.yml
+++ b/ci/requirements-py37.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ channels:
 dependencies:
   - python=3.7
   - cftime
+  - nc-time-axis
   - dask
   - distributed
   - h5py
diff --git a/xarray/plot/plot.py b/xarray/plot/plot.py
index f05a3edd823..d0f4e57afff 100644
--- a/xarray/plot/plot.py
+++ b/xarray/plot/plot.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
 
-from .facetgrid import FacetGrid
+from .facetgrid import _easy_facetgrid
 from .utils import (
     _add_colorbar, _ensure_plottable, _infer_interval_breaks, _infer_xy_labels,
     _interval_to_double_bound_points, _interval_to_mid_points,
@@ -102,26 +102,6 @@ def _infer_line_data(darray, x, y, hue):
     return xplt, yplt, hueplt, xlabel, ylabel, huelabel
 
 
-# def _convert_cftime_data(values):
-#     converted = [CalendarDateTime(v, v.calendar) for v in values]
-#     return converted
-
-
-# def _convert_all_cftime(da):
-#     try:
-#         from cftime import datetime as cftime_datetime
-#     except ImportError:
-#         raise ImportError('cftime package missing')
-#     da = da.copy()
-#     # find the dim that has a cftime datatype
-#     dims = set(da.dims)
-#     cftime_dims = [d for d in dims if isinstance(da[d].data.ravel()[0],
-#                                                  cftime_datetime)]
-#     for cd in cftime_dims:
-#         da[cd].data = _convert_cftime_data(da[cd].data)
-#     return da
-
-
 def plot(darray, row=None, col=None, col_wrap=None, ax=None, hue=None,
          rtol=0.01, subplot_kws=None, **kwargs):
     """
diff --git a/xarray/tests/__init__.py b/xarray/tests/__init__.py
index a7eafa92bd7..9d571ff07f9 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/__init__.py
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ def LooseVersion(vstring):
 has_pynio, requires_pynio = _importorskip('Nio')
 has_pseudonetcdf, requires_pseudonetcdf = _importorskip('PseudoNetCDF')
 has_cftime, requires_cftime = _importorskip('cftime')
+has_nc_time_axis, requires_nc_time_axis = _importorskip('nc_time_axis')
 has_cftime_1_0_2_1, requires_cftime_1_0_2_1 = _importorskip(
     'cftime', minversion='1.0.2.1')
 has_dask, requires_dask = _importorskip('dask')
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_plot.py b/xarray/tests/test_plot.py
index 96f88b7bfb3..fcacf5ec1c5 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_plot.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_plot.py
@@ -17,7 +17,9 @@
 
 from . import (
     assert_array_equal, assert_equal, raises_regex, requires_cftime,
-    requires_matplotlib, requires_matplotlib2, requires_seaborn)
+    requires_matplotlib, requires_matplotlib2, requires_seaborn,
+    requires_nc_time_axis,
+    )
 
 # import mpl and change the backend before other mpl imports
 try:
@@ -1828,6 +1830,31 @@ def test_datetime_line_plot(self):
         self.darray.plot.line()
 
 
+@requires_nc_time_axis
+@requires_cftime
+class TestCFDatetimePlot(PlotTestCase):
+    @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+    def setUp(self):
+        '''
+        Create a DataArray with a time-axis that contains cftime.datetime64
+        objects.
+        '''
+        month = np.arange(1, 13, 1)
+        data = np.sin(2 * np.pi * month / 12.0)
+
+        darray = DataArray(data, dims=['time'])
+        darray.coords['time'] = xr.cftime_range(start='2017',
+                                                periods=12,
+                                                freq='1M',
+                                                calendar='noleap')
+
+        self.darray = darray
+
+    def test_cfdatetime_line_plot(self):
+        # test if line plot raises no Exception
+        self.darray.plot.line()
+
+
 @requires_seaborn
 def test_import_seaborn_no_warning():
     # GH1633