The Duch painter Vincent Van Gogh grew up in the family of a stern Calvinist country pastor, feeling a misunderstood misfit, obsessed by painting, while his elder brother Theo left for Brussels, later Paris, and became an art dealer. Vincent tried an alternative career as missionary to the Catlolic Walloon mineworkers in the Ardennes but returns, broke and failed again. Later he'll move in with Theo in Paris, but can't fit in business or society. Vincent heads for frustration and health drama. His heir, a Dutch railway engineer, later visits those places while deciding whether to sell the family paintings collection to invest in the super-fast railroad.