As the 19th century comes to a close, Friedrich Nietzsche and Vincent van Gogh traverse proximate geographical terrain, circling each other like orbiting stars as the philosopher wanders between Nizza, Sils Maria, and Torino, and the painter wanders between Paris, Arles, and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. As they engage in their philosophical and artistic pursuits,l the Eiffel Tower, symbol of progress and modernization, begins to rise in Paris, eliciting both protest and praise.
Through letters to and from friends, family, and others we witness their personal and artistic struggles as the philosopher and the painter come into ever greater proximity. Interrupting the panoply of voices are a series of intervals, brief illuminating blasts of information about the artistic, scientific, political, and other events of the period between 1888 to 1890, drawing both Nietzsche and Van Gogh into and out of the wider expanses of history.
As the construction of the Eiffel Tower nears completion, the lives of Nietzsche and Van Gogh approach their terrible denouements. Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the sister of the philosopher and a founder of a utopian racist colony in Paraguay, takes possession of the writings of her brother, now incapacitated by dementia.
With no deus ex machina in sight, the world advances toward the Great War, and the wonders and horrors of the 20th century appear on the horizon.
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