In Russia Zinaida Serebriakova is remembered by her self-portrait - a happy 25 year old woman in front of a mirror. Today this painting is considered to be one of the world's masterpieces. The second half of her life she spent in France with two of her four children. There her son and daughter became famous as interior painters who decorated palaces of European nobility. In Russia Zinaida left behind two other children and had a chance to see them only 40 years later. The film tells her French story - miserable existence but happy paintings. As if all the better in her she gave to the paintings and left nothing to herself.