Calandrino is a brilliant painter of frescoes, but that's where his brilliance ends. When he inherits a small sum of money from a distant aunt, Calandrino's so-called friends, Bruno and Buffalmacco, hatch a plan to exploit his deficiencies and appropriate the inheritance. Their plan backfires when Calandrino, encouraged by his wife, Tessa, and the local alchemist, Master Simone, devises a plan for a fresco series that will rival the Sistine Chapel ... 150 years before Michelangelo's birth! The Black Death serves as the backdrop for this exploration of love, loyalty, creativity, death and rebirth.