Mrs. Herbert and her husband are having some marital difficulties, so he decides to take a two week holiday by himself. To surprise him on his return, Mrs. Herbert commissions an artist to paint twelve portraits of her estate. The artist agrees, but on the condition that Mrs. Herbert lend him the use of her bodily favors for those two weeks. When Mr.. Herbert is found dead in his own mote at the end of those two weeks, the artist is the prime suspect, and Mrs. Herbert believes the mystery can be solved by close examination of the paintings the artist did. Greenaway's film feels a bit like BLOW-UP, but examines a world far stranger than the one of its setting; it feels as though the film takes place in a parallel universe rather than the 17th century.