Baroque Rome 1611

In a city where women are seen not heard, Artemisia Gentileschi dreams of becoming a great artist.

She grows up in a family of painters - all men and she knows she is more talented than her brothers and even her father, but she cannot choose her own future because she's a woman. She's clever, ambitious, resilient, and driven and wants to experience the world, but she knows her place and she belongs to her father and her future husband.

She goes from lesson to lesson, honing her craft and paints in private but she's only allowed to paint the women who inspire her. When her mother died her father became very strict and followed the pope's edicts about modesty, limiting the subjects she could paint.

When one of her father's collaborators enters her life, Tassi, and he becomes her tutor, a handsome dashing figure, who represents everything that a life of freedom might offer. Until the unthinkable happens and her torture begins.