A reclusive and brilliant art auctioneer with a lifelong obsession with female portraits becomes entangled with a mysterious young woman he never quite manages to see face to face, communicating with her only through intermediaries as he restores a villa she has inherited. As their relationship slowly deepens, he finds himself drawn into an elaborate web of trust and deception that threatens to unravel both his carefully guarded emotional life and his professional integrity. The film builds towards a devastating revelation about the nature of love, loneliness, and betrayal.