The story is narrated by a wounded and ailing man, who explains at the outset that he and his valet Pedro have arrived at an abandoned chateau in the Apennine Mountains of Italy. The narrator likens the chateau’s Gothic style to something out of an Ann Radcliffe novel. Pedro breaks into the chateau so that the narrator does not have to spend the night outside in his wounded condition. The two men choose to rest in one of the smallest and most modest rooms in one of the building’s turrets. The decorations in the room include antique tapestries, armor, black velvet curtains around the bed, and many modern paintings in golden frames.

The narrator observes the strange architecture of the chateau and the way the paintings are hung on all surfaces of the room, including in nooks and crannies. The narrator is growing delirious and begins to become fascinated with the paintings. He tells Pedro to close the shutters and light the candelabra so that he can study the paintings while resting in bed. The narrator then finds on his pillow a book with descriptions of the room’s paintings, and he begins to read it.

After hours of reading the book and looking at the paintings, the narrator adjusts the candelabra for better light. Doing so causes the light to shine on a portrait in a corner of the room he had not seen before. It is an oval portrait of a young woman. The narrator is deeply affected by the sight of this portrait, and he closes his eyes to gather his thoughts and try to understand why. He opens his eyes again and stares at the portrait. He notes that he had been feeling drowsy but the sight of this painting has re-energized him.

The narrator begins to study the portrait more closely. He notes that it shows the head and shoulders of a young woman and is done in a vignette fashion, in the style of the American painter Thomas Sully. The painting’s golden frame is in the “Moresque” style. The narrator is initially impressed with several aspects of the painting. He considers it very fine art and technically well done, and he observes that the subject of the painting is exceptionally beautiful. He also notes that the painting is so realistic that he initially thought it was the head of a live person, though its stylings caused him to dismiss the thought.

The narrator gazes at the painting for a long time, fascinated, trying to discover what he finds so captivating about it. He feels a strange mixture of emotions while looking at the painting, including confusion, revulsion, agitation, and awe. After an hour of examining and thinking, the narrator decides the painting’s effect comes from the lifelike expression on the young woman’s face. The narrator then adjusts the candelabra so that he can no longer see the painting and picks up the book of descriptions. He finds the description of the oval portrait and reads the information there about the painting’s subject, its artist, and how the portrait came to be. The remainder of the story is an extended quote from the book.

The narrator learns that the young woman in the painting was as happy a person as she was beautiful and that she had fallen in love with and married the painter. But it was a difficult match. The painter was a self-serious artist who loved his art more than anything else in life. The young woman, on the other hand, was lighthearted and carefree and loved almost everything. The only thing she hated and feared was her husband’s obsession with his art, which she saw as a rival for his time and affection. She hated everything about his preoccupation with his craft, even his painting equipment. When he expressed his desire to paint her portrait, she hated that too. But she nevertheless agreed to sit for her it.

The young woman sat for weeks in a dark room in a high turret while her husband painted her portrait. The artist enjoyed the process immensely and became consumed with his painting. He was so passionate about creating the portrait and so obsessed with his work that he didn’t notice his bride’s misery. Her health declined and her spirit deteriorated, but the artist didn’t see it. Despite the young woman’s discomfort and unhappiness, she sat still for days on end, smiling for him as he worked. She knew he was a famous painter and that he lived for his work and so she ignored her weakening health. Others who saw the painting as it was being created were awed by its realism and its beauty. They spoke about how the love the artist had for his wife was so evident in the work.

As the artist reached the final stages of the portrait, he shut everyone out of the room but himself and his wife. He became even more obsessed and hardly looked away from the canvas. After many weeks, the painting only needed a few brush strokes to finish, and the young woman had become even weaker and more pale. Finally, the artist added the last few touches, and the painting was finished. He sat regarding his work, captivated by it, but soon he became terrified by it. He screamed out that the painting was life itself. At last, the artist turned to his wife, only to find she had died in her chair.

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