The Painted Veil, originally a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, follows the story of Kitty Fane, a British woman in the 1920s. Kitty, trapped in a loveless marriage with her husband Walter, a bacteriologist, engages in an affair with a charming colonial official, Charles Townsend. When Walter discovers her infidelity, he gives her an ultimatum: accompany him to a cholera-stricken region in China or face public disgrace.