Based on artist Richard Dadd's tragic true story, Mad Richard follows the young artist as he develops his craft, contemplates the nature of art and fame and ultimately finds himself imprisoned in Bedlam for murder, committed as criminally insane. In 1853, Charlotte Bronte visits Richard at Bedlam and finds an unexpected kinship in his feverish mind and his haunting work. Masterfully slipping through time and memory, Mad Richard maps the artistic temperaments of Charlotte and Richard, weaving their divergent lives together with their shared fears and follies, dreams and crushing illusions.