With singleness of intention which was a desire of her husband returning, Mrs. Strickland sent a friend - the author - to Paris to advise her husband. 

The friend had met Strickland in Paris, they had a conversation. It turned out that Strickland decided to be a painter, being a forty-year old man without any special education. Despite of being laughed at his work, he merely shrugged his shoulders and continued to paint in his own way. 

Back in England, the friend tried to explain to Mrs. Strickland the utter hopelessness of trying to reconcile her husband. She could not realize her defeat at first. If Strickland had gone off with a woman, she could have understood him. She was not able to cope with an idea. 

Five years later the author made up his mind to go to Paris and to live there for a while; he settled down and went to meet his old friend Dirk Stroeve, a very poor painter with a delicate feeling for art, had married an Englishwoman - Blanche Stroeve, and settled in Paris. Stroeve knew Strickland and his paintings; he worshipped him, considering his paintings to be а sensation. He knew that Strickland didn’t want any man’s opinion. Indifferent to physical discomfort, he had not tried to sell his paintings in order to eat. When he needed money, he found odd jobs in and around Paris.

Some time later Strickland got sick; Dirk rushed home to Blanche, and pleaded with her to nurse the sick artist back to health. Initially, Blanche bitterly professed her hatred of the man who had laughed at her husband’s paintings; however, Dirk was able to persuade her to allow Strickland to come to their home.

After a period of living together, Blanche fell in love with Strickland. As Strickland recovered, Dirk sensed that Strickland would take possession of his studio so he plucked up the courage to ask him to leave, Blanche said that she would leave also. With a great love for his wife,  Dirk decided to leave and left her with half of what he owned. 

Strickland had taken Blanche Stroeve because she had a beautiful body to paint. When he had finished the picture, he became nonchalant with her. Unable to accept the reality, Blanche sought death. Dirk was deeply saddened by his wife's death and was even more distressed when he found a nude portrait of his wife,evidently the work of Strickland but could not do anything about it. It was a wonderful piece of art. 

After many years of unsuccessful efforts in Paris, Strickland was looking for a new creative environment at the age of nearly fifty. He eventually drifted to the island of Tahiti, completely isolated from the civilized world, moreover living with an Aboriginal woman, which was unforgivable in the eyes of his old society.

Here, in the primitive conditions of life, he found inspiration for composition. Despite being stricken with leprosy, gradually blind in both eyes, he continued to paint until his death. Because of his disdain and hatred for the civilized society in which he lived, he asked his Aboriginal wife after his death to burn all his works to prevent spreading of leprosy, but fortunately knowledgeable people were able to save them.

Years later a friend of Strickland, just returned from Tahiti, went to call on Mrs. Strickland in London. She seemed little interested in her husband’s last years or his death. On the wall were several colored reproductions of Strickland’s pictures. They were decorative, she thought, and went so well with her Bakst cushions.