Claudia is an art historian specializing in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Chris is a maritime engineer writing a dissertation on gondola construction. They share a passion for interpreting the hidden language of symbols. When Claudia discovers she has larynx cancer, she decides to spend her last days in Venice. There, her obsession with the world of Bosch causes her and Chris to make the Garden's visions real. Their perverse, sensual close-ups provide a counterpoint for their appointment with death.