Decades earlier, Malcolm Raphelson, an iconoclastic American painter in his seventies, had been included in a group exhibition -- "Ten Unknowns" -- of up-and-coming artists to watch, but he quickly faded into obscurity after he turned his back on the New York art world that had dismissed his realistic style in favor of abstract expressionism. For the last thirty years, Malcolm has been living mostly alone in a self-imposed exile in a remote village in Mexico where he has worked "on and off... but more off than on. " With the passing of time, the art world has come to re-embrace his style. Trevor Fabricant, a New York-based art dealer, tracks down Malcolm and attempts to convince him to mount a solo exhibiton back in the U. S.