Italy, 1610. Artemisia (Valentina Cervi) is seventeen years old and has inherited her well-known painter-father Orazio’s (Michel Serrault) talent and passion for painting. But painting is forbidden for women, who are not able to attend art classes, nor have male models to pose nude. Artemisia gets her father to agree for the famous painter Agostino Tassi (Miki Manojlovic) to give her lessons and teach her technique of perspective. Agostino and Artemisia fall in love - Agostino is captivated by her youth, beauty and talent, while she is fascinated by him. But Orazio, who is devastated by what has happened, wants to uphold his daughter’s name, and wants revenge. Artemisia breaks with her family and eventually attains tragic fame and in due course, becomes a painter.