The Painted Veil: Synopsis

Based on the classic novel by Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the tale of a young English couple, Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.

Kitty is an upper class London socialite closing in on an age when a proper lady must find a husband. To remain unwed much longer would be highly unbecoming, not to mention humiliating for her exceedingly socially conscious mother. Bored with her privileged lifestyle anyway and yearning for escape, Kitty accepts a proposal of marriage from Dr. Walter Fane, a quiet, serious bacteriologist who moves the new couple to Shanghai.

In the strange city -- which is blooming into the center of popular culture, political intrigue and vice in China -- the Fanes venture out into British colonial society, where they are introduced to English Vice Consul Charles Townsend. While Walter dedicates himself to his work and to his new wife, Kitty embarks on an adulterous affair with Charlie.

After Walter learns of her indiscretion, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by the deadly cholera epidemic, and forces a despondent Kitty to accompany him.

Following the Fanes arrive in the village of Mei-tan-fu, the couple's wintry isolation continues. Kitty befriends a neighbor, Deputy Commissioner Waddington, and the emotional trappings of her former life slowly fall away as she begins to confront the reality of her surroundings. Amid the human wreckage of the cholera epidemic, which has given both spouses new purpose, Kitty and Walter discover forgiveness, understanding, even tenderness -- and rediscover each other.