In 17th-century Holland, Sophia marries Cornelis for his money, even though he`s three times her age. When Cornelis hires a portrait painter to immortalize the two of them in oils, the consequences shatter the comfortable world of Dutch respectability. Sophia and the painter fall wildly in love, make an elaborate plan to run off together, and stake everything on making a fortune on the famous tulip fever that gripped Amsterdam in 1636.