An ambitious art critic, James Figueras, is approached by a wealthy art collector, Joseph Cassidy, with a proposition. Cassidy has the reclusive artist Jerome Debney living on his estate: if Figueras can procure for him, by whatever means, a Debney painting he can get an interview with Debney, something no one has done for 50 years, and Cassidy will help Figueras’s career. Getting the painting becomes an obsession for Figueras.