Aldous Jones is tempted to spend the day sitting in the kitchen after the death of his wife. But he resumes old pastimes until, one day, wandering in London, he finds in the National Gallery, Rembrandt's portrait of his housekeeper turned mistress. This potrait awakens in Aldous the desire for a new[...]

Towards the end of the Second World War a young British artist called Kenneth Brill is arrested for painting landscapes near the old village of Heathrow. The authorities suspect his paintings contain coded information about the new military airfield that is to be built there. Brill protests that he [...]