Художникът Кингдъм Суон достига до заключението, че картините му вече са остарели и ретроградни. Затова решава да се захване с модната в началото на миналия век художествена фотография. Естествено, в процеса на работата се стига и до най-приятната част - да се снимат голи мадами.. Но това води към порнография, за която в местния морал просто няма достатъчно място. Наивният, макар и не много млад художник, е на път да се вкара в сериозен конфликт с обществото най-вече защото още не е заговорил инстинктът му за самосъхранение.

Den talentfulde maler Kingdom Swann, hvis salg af malerier er stærkt dalende. Successen kommer dog retur, da han begynder at fotografere klassiske malerier - fyldt med nøgne kvinder. Men successen skyldes ikke det, den naive Swann går og tror?

The career of the once successful classical portraitist, Kingdom Swann, has hit bad times. When a leading gallery rejects his work, he seems at the point of giving up. It is only the support of his housekeeper, Violet Askey, that keeps him going and it is she who encourages him to switch to photography. Soon Swann has developed a healthy (and respectable) business with portraits of naked women in classical and exotic settings. However, the nature of Swann's new work is open to misinterpretation and he finds himself at the centre of a scandal involving the misuse of his pictures by a SOHO pornographer, and the focus of a campaign by suffragettes against the expoitation of women. At the same time, he loses the support of the loyal Violet, who leaps to the wrong conclusion about Swann's relationship with one of his models. When Violet then becomes involved in the suffragette and amti-pornography movements, it seems all may be lost for Swann - both professionally...and personally.