Joan Mitchell was one of the only women among New York's dynamic Abstract Expressionists — Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning. A fascinating and complex woman, the film is a collection of interviews with the artist about her life and work interweaved with shots of her art.

This is not an academic documentary, it is a moving and humorous celebration of art and an artist. Moments of poetic lyricism and dramatic montage reveal the essential emotions that impel this woman to paint. Through intimate visits with Joan Mitchell in New York, Pans and Vetheuil we discover a creative personality that is both tough and vulnerable, funny and tragic, childlike but wise to the deeper meanings of life and art.