It is 1797 and in Georgian London, the American painter Benjamin West is visited by a blundering father and vibrant daughter, the Provises, who claim they have a secret that has obsessed painters for centuries: the techniques of master painter Titian. With his fortune and fame in decline, West agrees to let Ann Jemima Provis visit his studio and demonstrate the techniques from the document. What West finds there reveals secrets about himself, the treachery of the art world, and the seductive promise of greatness.