Franz is a copyist of old masterpieces at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum. Under the growing influence of the works of art that surround him, he finds himself increasingly incapable of coping with the day-to-day frustrations and imperfections of the "outside" world. When he is denied access to his daughter by his estranged wife, the pressure mounts. The universes conjured up by the paintings begin to pervade and invade his reality with full force. Franz feels himself becoming utterly immersed in his imagination.