An artist living on an isolated island off the coast of Brittany just before WWI is visited by an eminent art critic, who used to be his mentor and now wants his portrait painted.
A series of monologues from the artist to the sitter while he's painting explore what has brought them that point. Although the ending is fairly predictable early on it is only in the last 30 pages that we learn the motivation behind it. Something of a tour de force.