Caravaggio meets Onorio Longhi, Italian architect and poet, and a bit of a bohemian. Longhi takes him to meet his friend Cesare D'Arpino, who is looking for assistants in his workshop.

Arcangelo and Sister Helga don't like each other much, but they have to work together to save the patient. At home, at lunch, Giuseppe has a strange feeling and rushes off.

Caravaggio falls ill and makes the acquaintance of Mario Minniti who becomes a friend to him. He takes him to the hospital of the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione in Rome.

When Moscati arrives home, he has a huge surprise waiting for him: an endless stream of poor people. At the hospital, Sister Helga catches Arcangelo with a nurse and is furious.

Once in Rome, Caravaggio looks for work in the studios of 2 Italian painters who were well-known at the time. Nobody seems very interested in his work.

In the piazza, Giuseppe discusses the war with some colleagues. He then runs into an old acquaintance. Later, in the lab, he talks about science and faith with his professor friend.

Michele goes back home after his mother dies and there, he spends some time with his childhood friend, Costanza Colonna. He tells her about his plans to go to Rome, the artistic center of the universe.

As he had promised Cloe, Giuseppe continues to look for her little boy, with little success. Some children he treats aren't really ill, they're just not getting enough to eat. Italy enters the war. Some doctors go to the front, others stay behind.

Michele manages to find a home for his painting, and receives something in exchange. Still at Maestro Simone's workshop, he grows up into a man and ends up trying to defend a young apprentice from being abused as he had been.

As her condition worsens, Cloe tells Giuseppe about the child she had abandoned, and makes him promise to find him.

Michele has a rough time of it in Master Simone's workshop. It's clear, however, that he has talent. A Knight of Malta comes into the workshop to have a look.

Giuseppe, Cloe, and Nina have a relaxing moment together at home, but then a letter arrives for Giuseppe that challenges the lighthearted atmosphere they had created.

Some years have passed, and Michele's widowed mother has had some difficult decisions to make regarding her children. One of these is to send 12-year-old Michele to Milan to be an apprentice at the workshop of the well-known artist, Simone Peterzano. Michele has no desire to leave home and family.

Nina goes back home to get some of her things and finds Cloe. She doesn't hide her resentment, but the two women end up having a conversation. Elena is clearly stufa (fed up) with Giuseppe never having time for her and she takes action.

Caravaggio is a TV mini-series based on the life of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It opens in 1577 when the painter was 5 years old. The plague had just hit and people who were still alive were burning their household possessions.