This documentary follows the restoration (during the first half of 2006) of a painting by Jean Broc (1771–1850) kept in the storerooms of the Louvre. This work, the School of Apelles, was executed just before 1800. It depicts Broc's fellow group of talented and fiery young painters who frequented Jacques-Louis David's studio at the time, and pays tribute to Raphael's School of Athens by portraying them in classical drapery. As the camera explores the painting, each step in the restoration process allows a return to the creation of the painting. From simple cleaning to retouching, the film constantly questions the integrity of the work. According to the restorer, "One should always remain a little inferior to the original; according to our ethics of restoration, our intervention must be able to be contested in aesthetic terms."

"A restoration project fosters proximity, an intimate relationship with painting. The work is large in size. The canvas measures 20 square meters. The figures are life-sized. Painted figures therefore face the bodies of the restorers in a theatrical confrontation. […] How can we film painting? I am fascinated by painting, yet I cannot explain why. Perhaps it's the thinking behind the painting that enfolds and captures my gaze. […] This film is based on the adventure of the gaze—the dual gaze, both near and distant. The freedom of not making a scholarly film allows us to disturb the transparency of representation and create a state of affect. Painting, like cinema, transforms thoughts into images; to let oneself be traversed by these images is to open oneself to emotion." (Laurence Garret)