Every ten years, Patrice, a 500-year-old woman, travels to a new city to pose nude on a red velvet couch for a painter. It's 1939 and Patrice is tired of being immortal. She longs to release her wisdom and secrets, and escape years of captivity. She arrives in New York City and meets the suffering Louis. His Jewish family and friends were taken by train to concentration camps and Louis himself was smuggled out of Vienna in a coffin. Except for his lover Hadrian, all he has ever loved has died. His only reason for continuing to live is to see his paintings hang in the museum alongside the Old Masters. Against the backdrop of horrific war, Patrice teaches Louis to paint the inside of her heart and her soul, and inspires him to create the masterpieces he's destined for. Patrice is about the myth of art and artist and how a woman and man during wartime pull truth and art from pain, passion, and desire.