This epic adventure-drama based on James Michener's best-selling novel concerns a young American embassy official who is sent into the Middle-Eastern desert to find the missing daughter of a US Senator. The young woman has left her husband, a Colonel in the Shadom - she was his number two wife - and has opted for the lifestyle of a nomadic tribe. When the diplomat locates the girl he joins the caravan and attempts to persuade the girl to return.

During the Italian Renaissance, Pope Julius II contracts the influential artist Michelangelo to sculpt 40 statues for his tomb. When the pope changes his mind and asks the sculptor to paint a mural in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo doubts his painting skills and abandons the project. Divine inspiration returns Michelangelo to the mural, but his artistic vision clashes with the pope's demanding personality and threatens the success of the historic painting.