New York, 183, and society portrait painter Piero Piambo feels his artistic ambitions waning, even while he immortalizes the city's neuveaux riche in oil paints. But then he receives a bizarre and lucrative commission, to paint the mysterious Mrs Charbuque. The catch is that he is not allowed to see her, and so Piambo sits before a screen as his sitter tells him of her life, dreams and fears - clues from which he must divine her appearance.

As he works, a series of murders plagues the city - deaths that at first seem accidental. And, as Piambo's masterpiece takes shape, his relationship with Mrs Charbuque grows ever more tangled... while her deranged husband becomes hell-bent on some inexplicable vengeance.

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