After arriving at the house of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) in the summer of 1915, a vibrant and ambitious 15-year-old redhead soon becomes a muse to the aged and arthritic painter, inspiring a new lease of life in his twilight years.

But the realities of WWI intrude on the idyllic Cote d'Azur setting with the sudden arrival of Renoir's son Jean, an officer in the French army, to convalesce back home after being wounded in action.

A complex relationship between father and son gradually unfolds.