- Andrew Marlow, devoted to his work as a psychiatrist and to the painting hobby lie loves, leads a solitary but ordered life. When the renowned artist Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. Marlow quickly finds that order destroyed. He grows desperate to understand the secret that torments the brilliant artist, and he embarks on a journey that leads him not only into the lives of the women closest to Oliver but also to a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.