This film looks at the context in which the enigmatic painter, Jan Vermeer, lived. From the birth of an independent Dutch society, to the developments in the world of astronomy and geography that transformed the 17th century, Vermeer's life and his art is shrouded in mystery. He left no papers, no drawings, no clues as to the meaning or intention of his paintings, and he died leaving such substantial debts that his widow was forced to sell his work. This film explains his revolutionary techniques and his exploratory process of pictorial composition, and discusses the meaning of Vermeer's settings and subjects and the formal simplicity and intensity of feeling that make his jewel-like paintings so moving.