Dari is a teenager who lives with her wealthy grandparents in France. Her grandfather is an arrogant, eccentric painter whose signature portrayals of young, nude women and peonies are widely renowned. Despite his talent, he won’t teach Dari how to paint out of fear that she may surpass his abilities. Her grandmother is a diffident woman with festering contempt for the beautiful models who pose for her husband. Dari notices her grandmother’s misery, and she refuses to share her fate. Dari seeks companionship from the models. Many of them resent her youth and her dreams of becoming a painter. One of them, Lila, empathizes with Dari and introduces her to a former model named Audrey. Her likeness is featured in Dari’s grandfather’s most famous — and most valuable — painting, but she never saw a cent from its success. Audrey becomes a mentor of sorts and introduces Dari to her glamorous yet lonely world. She also teaches her how to paint. Dari learns the impermanence of beauty and realizes that it hasn’t yielded anything tangible for the women who possess it. At her grandfather’s annual exhibition, she steals his painting of Audrey off the wall and goes to her house to give it to her. She’s not home, but Dari waits for her to return so that the older woman may finally glean the fruits of her labor.