The musical tells the story of the great Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who had no success with his paintings during his life. In a fit of madness he committed suicide at the age of 37 in a cornfield. This scene is shown in the Prologue. The first scene begins with a trial which takes place after his death, ordered by a divine Court of Justice. Vincent is invited to defend himself, explaining why he killed himself. His brother Theo, who had always sustained him in every way, takes up Vincent's defence. The following scenes show the most important episodes of Vincent's life, a long sequence of failures: first as the employee of an art-merchant, than as a teacher in an English boarding school and after that as a protestant preacher. His love-story with the prostitute Sien ends badly; he had picked her up from the street with her little daughter and had offered her hospitality trying to redeem her. This causes also a rupture with his relatives. But Sien leaves him to take up her old profession. His friendship with his fellow-painter Gauguin takes a tragic end: after a violent quarrel Vincent cuts off his own ear and takes it to a brothel. After this the citizens of the Provençal town Arles, where Vincent had hoped to find inner peace and inspiration, drive him away as a madman. Vincent, who had succeeded in selling only one painting during his lifetime, falls into a deep depression. After having painted some of his best works in only a few days, he shoots himself in one of his beloved corn-fields. "I suffered too much" are the words with which he defends himself in the final song of the Epilogue. But was he really guilty? Or was it the lack of understanding of his contemporaries that drove him into death? And why did even Theo feel guilty? These are open questions to which the public is invited to answer.