The film is centred on the creation of ''Night Watch (painting)'', Rembrandt's most famous work, depicting civilian militiamen who wanted to be celebrated in a group portrait. The film posits a Cabal to murder within the musketeer regiment of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, and suggests that Rembrandt may have immortalized a conspiracy theory using subtle allegory in his group portrait of the regiment, subversion (politics) what was to have been a highly prestigious commission for both painter and subject.