Ben Nicholson (1894-1988) was one of the few British artists to achieve international recognition and to make a significant contribution to the development of modern art. He is known principally for his famous abstract 'white reliefs' of the 1930s, but in fact he was a complex and versatile artist, for whom still life and landscape were a constant source of inspiration. Based partly on the reminiscences of people who knew him well, including the architect Sir Leslie Martin, the painter Patrick Heron, and his third wife Felicitas Vogler, this film explores his artistic background (his father was a painter), visits the places that meant so much to him - Cumberland, St Ives, Switzerland - and traces the outline of his life, including his three marriages, first to the painter Winifred Roberts, second to the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and third to the photographer Felicitas Vogler. Nicholson's technical mastery in painting, carving and drawing and his restless experimentation with still life, landscape and abstraction are examined and analysed, in an eloquent tribute to one of the most original artists of the twentieth century.