Magical light creates stunning visions in Alexander Wainwright's landscape paintings. His most recent painting, The Hay Wagon, is a marvelous, moonlit scene, with an old-fashioned hay wagon dominating the foreground, with a beautiful, unearthly glow.

Yet, at the pinnacle of his career, Alexander is about to lose his muse. Not everyone appreciates his work. Rinaldo, a conceptual artist, mocks Alexander's bourgeois love of beauty, believing his success proves that the universe is chaotic and absurd.

Determined to undermine, humiliate and ultimately destroy his rival, Rinaldo defaces Alex's painting. Alexander brushes off the attack, but soon he has a frightening vision of misshapen, human-like creatures. These trolls start appearing in his art, and he is beset by questions.