In his mid-40s, the painter Edvard Munch was in the greatest crisis of his life. Abroad he is already being hailed as an artist of the future, in his native Norway he is seen as a dodger and psychopath. His mother and sister Sophie died early from consumption. The highly dramatic relationship with his fiancée Mathilde Larsen ends with a shot that cripples the middle finger of his left hand. Sister Laura is in a madhouse. And Munch fears that he will soon become insane too.