Hailed as a masterpiece of restrained erotic tension, Girl With a Pearl Earring is an achingly beautiful tale of forbidden love and tormented talent. Set in cloistered 17th century Holland, Scarlett Johansson is Griet, an innocent young woman sent to work in the household of the mysterious painter, Dutch Master, Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). Despite his wife's protestations about their new maid, Vermeer begins to see intelligence and understanding flickering in her eyes and slowly, tentatively lets her in to his private world of oils, canvasses and concentration. But the ramifications of this tender and intimate bond will be explosive when Vermeer asks his young muse to secretly pose for his latest painting.