Charles Rennie Mackintosh, born Glasgow, 1868. As a student, he was the painter who led the Spook School, a Glaswegian expression of Art Nouveau. At 27, he was the architect who won the competition to design the Glasgow School of Art, his masterpiece. Later, an interior designer, his rooms were formal and austere in a world cluttered with knick-knacks. At the end of his life, he designed textiles for the new Jazz Age. This film is a centenary tribute to a remarkable man with the sad affliction of having been born ahead of his time.