Arles, France. The autumn of '88. Loneliness as thick as lead white paint. Setting up his easel before orchards, wheatfields and the few subjects who will tolerate him. His only friends a drunken postal worker, a skirt-chasing Zouave, and Rachel, one of Madame Virginie's girls. Then Gauguin shows up and the world blooms. They venture to the night cafe for an absinthe and on to Madame Virginie's to see Rachel. They gamble at Ginoux's table, throw punches in Place Lamartine, dance at the Folies. Gauguin nails him up in a coffin so he can taste death and when he awakes it is to a new life. And,...