Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and Jeanne’s bigoted parents send the baby to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns. Modigliani is distraught and needs money to rescue and raise his child. The answer arrives in the shape of Paris’ annual art competition. Prize money and a guaranteed career await the winner. Neither Modigliani, nor his dearest friend and rival Picasso have ever entered the competition, believing that it is beneath true artists like themselves. But push comes to shove with the welfare of his child on the line, and Modigliani signs up for the competition in a drunken and drug-induced tirade. Picasso follows suit and all of Paris is aflutter with excitement at who will win. With the balance of his relationship with Jeanne on the line, Modigliani tackles this work with the hopes of creating a masterpiece, and knows that all the artists of Paris are doing the same.

In London, after investigating crack addicted junkies for an article in her newspaper, the journalist Amy Klein (Kari Wuhrer) watches a bizarre videotape. Her editor Charles Richmond (Simon Kunz) received the footage of an underground group of youngsters in Bucharest apparently becoming zombies through the power of their leader Winter (Paul Rhys) from a member, Marla (Georgina Rylance), and invites Amy to prepare the story. Amy accepts the challenge, and once in Romania, she finds Marla dead with a puzzle cube in her hands. She brings the object to her hotel room, and opens it, beginning her journey to hell.