Struck by a serious illness and tormented by fever, the narrator finds himself in the middle of the deserted Italian mountains. His valet, not wanting to leave the owner to sleep in the open air, invades the ancient castle without demand. The narrator tries to alleviate pain and fever with pure opium. He cannot fall asleep and preoccupies himself with looking at the paintings in the room occupied by him, checking the volume of their descriptions and stories of their creation found there.

He draws attention to the portrait of a young beautiful woman who at first did not notice. The picture makes such a strong impression on the narrator that he is forced to close his eyes to sort out his feelings. Finally, he realizes that the reason for his so strange reaction is in the amazing liveliness of the portrait. The traveler immediately begins to leaf through the guide.

In the book he finds the story of the creation of the picture. The artist who wrote it was fanatically passionate about art. Deciding to paint a portrait of his wife, he was so deeply immersed in this occupation that he did not notice anything around. She was a model for him and patiently posed for many weeks.Fascinated by work, he did not notice that the life force left the woman. She understood that her husband, a renowned artist, draws his inspiration from her, did not dare to complain and faded away.

And now the portrait was almost ready. When the artist applied the last brushstroke, "the spirit of the beauty ... flared up like a flame in a lamp." The artist exclaimed: “But this is life itself!”, Turned to his wife and saw that she was dead.