This novel casts Moore's view askance on a familiar subject and twists it into something wholly original. Famed painter Vincent van Gogh lies dead, an apparent suicide victim. Two of his painterly colleagues are not convinced that the artist truly offed himself, though, so they embark on a quest to find the truth.

Baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard and bon vivant Henri Toulouse-Lautrec vow to discover the truth behind the untimely death of their friend Vincent van Gogh, which leads them on a surreal odyssey and brothel-crawl deep into the art world of late-nineteenth-century Paris.