In the Musée d’Orsay

The Doctor has taken his travelling companion Amy Pond to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where they admire the work of the post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh. But one particular picture, The Church at Auvers catches The Doctor's eye, and he points out to Amy a malevolent, shadowed face that appears in one of the windows. Disturbed, The Doctor decides they must travel back in time so they can discover what it is by speaking to Vincent Van Gogh himself.

Using the TARDIS they arrive in 1890 Arles, France, where they manage to track down Vincent Van Gogh at a local cafe' and discover that the artist is so impoverished he has earned a bad reputation and is unable to pay for his drinks. The Doctor attempts to break the ice, but the distrustful artist rebuffs him angrily. Amy, however, ingratiates herself to him very quickly by offering to share a bottle of wine with him.

The Doctor tries to broach the subject of the church painting, but they are interrupted when a woman appears wailing for help. They rush into a nearby alleyway to find a young girl dead, ravaged by some sort of beast. Seeing Vincent Van Gogh the anguished mother blames his madness for her daughter's fate. Pelted with stones, they run from the small crowd, and Vincent tells The Doctor that a similar murder occurred a week prior.

Having a Drink with Vincent Van Goch

The Doctor manages to persuade Vincent to allow them to stay the night. Inside his small home they discover it cluttered with his paintings that the artist sadly considers worthless to anyone but himself. Seeing so many paintings, that one day will become worth a fortune, Amy can not contain her delight. She then finds even more paintings outside. But while admiring them she is attacked by a creature that it seems only Vincent Van Gogh can see. The Doctor attempts to help, but is knocked about by the invisible creature. Vincent, however, drives it off and saves them both. Back inside, Vincent sketches the creature for The Doctor, and The Doctor goes back to the TARDIS to fetch a device that will allow him to identify the creature. But the quick sketch Vincent made is not good enough for an identity to be made.

However, on the way back to Vincent’s house, while in a narrow alleyway, The Doctor becomes aware that the invisible creature is hunting him. Using his device The Doctor is then able to identify the creature as a Krafayis, a vicious pack-predator that he deduces has been abandoned on Earth. With this knowledge, and knowing that this is the shadowy face that Vincent included in his The Church at Auvers painting, he persuades Vincent to come with him to the local church so that they can lay in wait for the creature to arrive.

Searching for the Monster

On the way to the church they meet a funeral procession for the dead village girl moving down the road, and the trio stop to pay their respects. As the casket passes by Vincent spots that atop the casket are some sunflowers. A flower that Vincent had stated earlier is not his favourite when Amy hinted to him that he should include them in a future painting.

When they reach the church, Vincent begins to paint the building, stopping occasionally to quiet The Doctor who is bored by the long wait. Hours later, as night starts to fall, Vincent spots the Krafayis inside, lurking behind one of the windows. While Vincent and Amy remain outside, with explicit instructions not to follow him, The Doctor enters the church with the plan to stun the creature with his sonic screwdriver.

Inside, however, The Doctor finds it difficult to carry out his plan, and from outside Vincent, spots the creature stalking The Doctor instead. Despite The Doctor’s instructions Amy dashes inside, and the pair are forced to hide inside a confessional booth as the invisible creature tries to locate them. This it eventually does due to Amy’s heavy breathing. They are saved by Vincent who arrives and fends off the creature with his chair, allowing the three of them to retreat and hide. The Doctor attempts to reason with the creature, but he fails.

The Krafayis

When Vincent observes that the Krafayis is feeling its way around the room The Doctor realises that the Krafayis is blind, and that is why it was left behind. Using its heightened hearing the enraged Krafayis eventually locates where The Doctor, Amy and Vincent are and charges at them. Vincent is forced to repel the creature with his easel, but the Krafayis impales itself on it, something that the artist had not intended to do. As the Krafayis lays dying, The Doctor makes out that the creature is afraid, and he strokes and comforts it as best he can as it breathes its last. Vincent sadly observes that the frightened, lonely creature had been lashing out in fear and frustration, the way that humans do when they are afraid and the way the villagers sometimes lash out at him because of his strange behaviour.

The following morning, The Doctor and Amy say their goodbyes and Amy tells Vincent to be kind to himself. He embraces Amy and The Doctor and thanks them both. But before they leave, The Doctor decides to show Vincent the TARDIS and to take him on a journey to the Musée d'Orsay in 2010. There, The Doctor shows Vincent how his art has come to be regarded and how respected his contribution, to the art world, has become. This reduces Vincent to tears of joy. They then return Vincent back to Arles in his own time, where Vincent tells The Doctor and Amy that he will walk out with his easel the very next day a changed man.

They leave a smiling Vincent and return once more to the Musée d'Orsay, where Amy, after their involvement, expects to see that Vincent's history had changed, and that he had lived a long life and painted many new paintings. However, she is hugely disappointed to find that nothing has changed and that Vincent still committed suicide in the same year that they had met him.

But when they look further, at the paintings in the museum, they realise that subtly changes have occurred. The Church at Auvers no longer shows a beast in the window, and his Sunflowers painting now bears the dedication: ‘For Amy’.