Master Jan is a brilliant painter of portraits with an uncanny - and sometimes dangerous - knack of portraying the truth from behind the mask of his sitters. Even Philip of Burgundy, Jan's powerful patron does not escape these perceptive powers. As First Painter to the Court, Jan is witness to the fatal uprising of the guildsmen, the burning of Joan of Arc at the stake, all the infidelities and intrigues and is also privy to the Duke's own intimate affairs. It is the Duke's struggle with his tempestuous cousin, Jacqueline, whom he loves fiercely but on his own terms, that most affects Jan's life.