-
Still Life
After Vermeer's wife is attacked by her brother, their unborn child is killed. Later on Vermeer decides to paint his daughter. -
Magdalena Looking
After living a very unsatisfied life, she was ignored by her father until his death. She realizes that she has nothing special to offer the world other than her painting which held barely any worth. -
From the Person Papers of Adriaan Kuypers
The St. Nicholas flood occurs on the day Aletta is hanged for infanticide. She was superstitious and thought her child would bring misfortune. -
Morningshine
Saskia finds Adriaans baby in her family's boat and decides to keep him. With the baby is a painting, which was left in order to help the family provide for him. -
Hyacinth Blues
The narrator has an affair with a violinist and discovers that her husband was having one too. She leaves to go sell the painting and travels to Paris. -
Adagia
Laurens refuses to give his nearly wed daughter the painting because it reminds him of his past lover. This causes his wife to feel underappreciated. -
A Night Different From All Other Nights
Hannah kills her family's pigeons to avoid being caught owning them due to laws restricting Jews from owning pigeons. The relation she has to the painting that she obtained in an auction with her father, drives her to accomplish this. -
Love Enough
Cornelius's dad steals the painting from the Jewish people he sent to camps. This painting follows Cornelius into his adult life making him admire and hold guilt for having possession of it.