Paris. 1889. Isolated by the language barrier and French elitism, a tight circle of eccentric foreign artists known as "Les Absintheurs" (The Absinthe Drinkers) settle in decadent Montmartre at the height of the Impressionist movement. When the young German painter Artemisia von Rach arrives from Berlin to attend the conservative Women's Academy, the Absintheurs immediately recognize her immense talent and she is welcomed into their clique. Artemisia quickly discovers that chauvinism, bitterness and jealousy run deep within her new friends and she is soon dragged into their world of debauchery and drug addiction even as she takes on their twisted lifestyles as subject matter. As the intimate circle of friends relocates to their spiritual home of Florence, their journey descends ever deeper into the occult, opium, and murder, culminating in an unthinkable betrayal.