Portrait of a Lady on Fire

At the end of the 18th century, Marianne, a painter, is teaching an art class in France. One of her students asks her about a painting of hers, which Marianne calls Portrait de la jeune fille en feu.

Years earlier, Marianne arrives on a distant island in Brittany. She has been commissioned to paint a portrait of a young woman of the gentry named Héloïse, who is to be married off to a Milanese nobleman. Héloïse's mother, the Countess, tells Marianne that Héloïse has previously refused to pose for portraits, as she does not want to be married; she had been living in a convent before her older sister's suicide necessitated her return and her betrothal. Marianne acts as Héloïse's hired companion to be able to paint her in secret and accompanies her on daily walks along the rugged coastline to memorize Héloïse's features.

Marianne finishes the portrait, but finds herself unable to betray Héloïse's trust and reveals her true reason for arriving. After Héloïse criticises the painting, which does not seem to portray her true nature, Marianne destroys the work and tells the Countess she can create a better painting. As the Countess is getting ready to fire Marianne, Héloïse says that she will pose for Marianne. The Countess is shocked to hear this and gives Marianne five days to complete the new portrait while she is away on the mainland. Marianne is haunted throughout the house by visions of Héloïse in a wedding dress. One evening, they read the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and debate the reason Orpheus turns around to look at his wife, causing her to be returned to the underworld, with Héloïse suggesting that Eurydice asked him to. Later, the two go to a bonfire gathering where women sing and Héloïse's dress briefly catches fire as she stares at Marianne.

The next day, Marianne and Héloïse share their first kiss and have sex later that night. They spend the next few days together, during which their bond grows stronger, and help the housemaid, Sophie, get an abortion. With their relationship about to be cut short by the Countess's return, Marianne sketches a drawing of Héloïse to remember her by, and Héloïse asks Marianne to draw a nude sketch of herself on page 28 of her book. The Countess approves of the new portrait, and the next morning Marianne bids farewell. As she is about to leave the house, she hears Héloïse say, "Turn around". She turns and sees Héloïse in her wedding dress.

In the present, Marianne reveals that she saw Héloïse two more times. The first was in the form of a portrait at an art exhibition, in which Héloïse, with a child beside her, is portrayed holding a book and surreptitiously revealing the edge of page 28. The second time was at a concert in Milan, where she notices Héloïse among the patrons seated in the balcony across the theater from her. Unobserved, Marianne watches as Héloïse is overwhelmed by emotion while listening to the orchestra playing the Presto from "Summer" in Vivaldi's Four Seasons, music that Marianne had played for her on a harpsichord years before.