Living in the shadow of a powerful figure, Clara Hsu's aspiration is to please as well as to break away from her protective and nurturing father. While the men she is attracted to are pixelated images of her father, the one she believes claims her heart is the "rebel" she fantasizes about but dares not become. Only when her love and life are compromised does she look inward to find the spirit of a young girl waiting to be reclaimed. The Painted Skin is a portrait of an artist discovering the bases of her art only at mid-life, only when one of her lives ends and another begins.