When his dead-on voice impression of a famous white child actor lands young African-American Charles Tyne a hushed-up replacement gig on Detroit radio in 1940, his life is forever changed. Across a sweeping journey that takes him to post-war Harlem, swinging Paris, the lonely Mallorcan coastline, the British-run Mau Mau concentration camps in Kenya, burgeoning apartheid South Africa, and the ever-changing face of the South Bronx in the sixties, Charles constantly reinvents himself, becoming a noted painter, comic book artist, celebrity photographer, foreign news correspondent, and scenic designer all with only a handful of people knowing his race. "The Impressionist" is a story about the mystery of identity, the pain of regret, the enduring nature of love, and the search for one’s true self against a backdrop of dramatic upheaval and historical change.