Isabella and Jack move into their new Beacon Street mansion as a newly married couple in Boston.

Isabella discovers she is pregnant for the first time, filling her and Jack with great joy.

Isabella gives birth to a son, nicknamed Jackie, and finally finds contentment as a new mother.

After falling ill during a winter snowstorm, Jackie dies, plunging Isabella into deep and overwhelming grief.

Harriet dies in childbirth and Isabella suffers a miscarriage; a doctor tells her she can never conceive again.

Jack has Isabella carried out of their home in her bed and placed aboard a ship bound for Europe.

Isabella forces her way into a men's-only London club, where Theodore Lyman warmly praises her sharp intellect.

Back in Boston, Isabella visits Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton, reigniting her passion for books and ideas.

While traveling in the Middle East, Isabella and Jack receive word that Joseph has died and that they must become guardians of his three sons.

Isabella begins an extramarital affair with writer Frank Marion Crawford during the family's summer stay in Newport.

In England, nephew Joe Gardner dies by suicide and Isabella's mother dies shortly afterward.

Isabella's father dies and leaves her a vast fortune, enabling her to begin collecting art on a large scale.

Sargent's portrait of Isabella is publicly displayed and causes immediate scandal; Jack demands the painting never be shown again.

Jack dies suddenly, but Isabella forges ahead alone with their shared plans to build Fenway Court.

Fenway Court opens with a lavish New Year's Day celebration, marking the fulfillment of Isabella's lifelong search for purpose.

Isabella Stewart Gardner arrives in Boston as a young bride, eager to build a life but quickly finding herself isolated and longing for purpose. After years of struggling to conceive, she gives birth to a son, Jackie, only to lose him and then learn she will never have more children. Her husband Jack takes her to Europe to heal, where she discovers new intellectual passions and begins collecting rare books and art. Back in Boston, she becomes guardian to her orphaned nephews and deepens her circle of unconventional friendships, including a passionate affair with writer Frank Marion Crawford. Tragedy strikes again when her nephew Joe dies by suicide, but a large inheritance from her father finally gives Isabella the resources to pursue art collecting in earnest. She oversees the construction of Fenway Court, a Venetian-inspired palace in Boston, which opens on New Year's Day 1903 as the triumphant culmination of her life's work.

Isabella's life from marriage to the founding of Fenway Court.

A dinner party hostess makes a rude comment to Isabella, deepening her painful sense of isolation in Boston society.

Gardener Mr. Valentine suggests Isabella travel alone on public transportation to buy plants, and she feels newly invigorated.

Isabella hosts a New Year's Day party at her home that no one attends, leaving her deeply humiliated.

Isabella meets Theodore Lyman at a Boston gathering and forms an unexpected friendship grounded in intellectual exchange.

Isabella and Jack watch the Great Boston Fire together, and Isabella, filled with new confidence, initiates a passionate encounter with Jack.

In Paris, Isabella and Jack meet Impressionist painters including Manet, Degas, Monet, and Renoir.

In Dresden, Lyman invites Isabella to visit Harvard to meet intellectuals and art historians, a remarkable offer given Harvard excludes women.

After visiting Norton, Isabella acquires rare books including a first edition of The Scarlet Letter and a feminist text by Margaret Fuller.

Isabella, Jack, and their nephews attend the opening of Boston's Public Gardens and warmly greet their old friend Mr. Valentine.

In London, Isabella and nephew Joe meet writer Henry James and painter James McNeill Whistler.

Isabella walks two partially tame lions on leashes at the Boston Zoological Gardens, causing a citywide sensation.

Isabella joins a group of female writers and activists for ice cream at a new parlor, venturing out without any male chaperones.

At the Chicago World's Fair, Isabella and Jack discover Swedish painter Anders Zorn and Isabella enthusiastically champions his work.

Bernard Berenson purchases a Rembrandt self-portrait on Isabella's behalf, marking a milestone in her growing art collection.

Near the end of her life, Isabella writes to Berenson with firm instructions that nothing in Fenway Court be changed.

From early social humiliations in Boston to her final wishes before death, Isabella's life is shaped by a series of meaningful secondary encounters and experiences. She forges unlikely friendships with a gardener, a scientist, and a Harvard professor, and begins collecting rare books that ignite her intellectual ambitions. Travel abroad exposes her to Impressionist painters and great thinkers, while at home she pushes social boundaries by walking lions, attending an all-women outing for ice cream, and hosting lecture series on Japan. Alongside nephew Joe, she meets celebrated figures like Henry James and Whistler in London, expanding her sense of what a meaningful life can look like. Her art collection grows through key milestones, including Bernard Berenson's acquisition of a Rembrandt on her behalf, and she discovers new artistic talent at the Chicago World's Fair. In her final years, Isabella ensures that her museum and its collection will remain exactly as she intended, leaving nothing to chance.

The encounters, relationships, and moments that shaped Isabella's world.

Isabella and Jack closely oversee construction of their Beacon Street home, revealing Isabella's fierce drive to design her own life.

Julia announces her pregnancy to Isabella, deepening Isabella's longing for motherhood and her sense of being adrift in Boston.

A fierce snowstorm traps the family inside their Beacon Street home, and Jackie falls dangerously ill.

A doctor tells Isabella that, following her miscarriage, she will never be able to have more children.

On the Atlantic voyage to Europe, Isabella slips away from first class to join a raucous party among the ship's staff.

Isabella visits a medium in London and receives visions of Harriet and Jackie that bring unexpected peace to her grief.

At London's Chelsea Physic Garden, Isabella tells Jack that she needs a genuine purpose in life, not merely physical recovery.

Nephew Joe observes that Isabella's friendships with male artists and intellectuals nourish her in ways Boston society never has.

Julia confesses to Isabella that she also lost an infant son but has chosen to grieve privately and in silence.

Isabella meets Oscar Wilde at a party and realizes she can create her own social circle rather than seek others' acceptance.

Crawford fails to appear for a planned birthday meeting with Isabella, leaving her devastated and forcing her to reassess the affair.

During the voyage home after Jack's father dies, Isabella writes to Crawford and permanently ends their relationship.

Isabella meets art historian Bernard Berenson and gives him money to travel to Venice, beginning a pivotal collecting partnership.

Sargent begins painting Isabella's portrait in a series of intimate sessions that she finds unexpectedly awakening.

During a final encounter in New York, Isabella tells Crawford that her deepest desire is no longer for him.

From the earliest years of her marriage, Isabella seeks to build a life with intention, but devastating losses—including her son's death and the news she cannot bear more children—force her to reinvent herself entirely. Her journey to Europe becomes a turning point, and encounters there reveal what life can hold beyond grief, including a visit to a medium who finally brings peace to her sorrow. As she grows older, Isabella recognizes the transformative power of her unconventional friendships and, upon meeting Oscar Wilde, understands she must create her own social world rather than seek admission to others'. Her passionate affair with Crawford ends in abandonment and disillusionment, but Isabella emerges knowing that art and beauty are her true obsessions. She forms a crucial partnership with Bernard Berenson and sits for Sargent's intimate portrait, two experiences that cement her identity as a collector and patron. By the time she confronts Crawford for the last time in New York, Isabella has fully transformed, her desire shifting away from love and toward the enduring legacy she is building.