Said to be loosely based on the life of artist Paul Gaugin, The Moon and Sixpence tells the story of a wealthy stockbroker in middle age, with a wife and children, who leaves his settled life to pursue painting. He abandons everything he has ever known in order to follow a passionate impulse that takes him from France to Tahiti, into the arms of a mistress (his French benefactor's wife, no less) and then steeped in poverty, far away from civilization. While it might read like a cautionary tale for some, The Moon and Sixpence depicts the kind of madness necessary for some to fully realize their gifts.