Basque Country, Spain, 1843. A police constable arrives at a small village in Álava to investigate a mysterious blacksmith who lives alone deep in the woods.
After interning her insane husband in a remote psychiatric hospital, book editor Helga Pato returns home by train, where she meets a mysterious man who identifies himself as a psychiatrist.
Cristóbal Balenciaga makes his debut as a designer in Paris, but the designs that set a trend in Spain don't work well in the sophisticated empire of fashion where Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy set the trends. Guided by his obsession with control in all aspects of his life, Balenciaga will define his style and end up becoming the greatest of all.
