Born into one of the noblest families in France, but cut off from his own class by the cruel accident that left him with the stunted legs of a child, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec threw himself into the bohemian life of fin-de-siecle Paris hungry for beauty, happiness and love.

Through the intensity of his artistic vision, that world of singers, dancers and prostitutes lives on. His letters and the reminiscences of his friends chart the progress of his art from boyhood to his death at the age of thirty-six.