Set in the violent city of Rome in 1600 a young painter, Caravaggio, brawls in taverns, finds his models in brothels and in the faces of the homeless, falls in lust and paints his way to fame with original, realistic, powerful and controversial images. But at the height of his notoriety he murders a vicious aristocrat in a gang fight and pursued by the dead man's brothers, and bounty hunters, he seeks refuge on Malta only to be tortured by the Grand Master and the Inquisition still running there. He escapes the fortress Valletta painting on the run in exile while being pursued by the Knights of Malta waiting desperately for a pardon from the Pope so he can return safely to Rome.