Frida Kahlo and and Diego Rivera travel to San Francisco, where he has an important commission, and the city is abuzz with excitement at their arrival. Frida's style stirs much excitement and catches the attention of well-known photographers Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston, who ask her to pose for them.  With Diego constantly working, Frida faces the realities of life as the wife of a famous artist. Determined to succeed in her own right and in the face of his affairs, she paints a powerful marriage portrait which is selected for exhibition. While Diego is revelling in work from wealthy patrons, Frida is shocked by the vast gap between rich and poor in Depression-era New York and struggles to hide her loathing of high society. In New York she meets the artist Georgia O'Keefe, a woman who deeply inspires her, and they kindle a romantic relationship.  Diego takes on the most unlikely of commissions in Detroit, funded by the Ford Motor Company, arriving in the city in the aftermath of the shooting of peaceful protestors who had demonstrated against mass layoffs at the Ford Rouge plant.  Frida falls pregnant and her worst fears are confirmed when she loses her child. She spends 13 agonizing days in hospital with her close friend Lucienne Bloch by her side. Frida turns once more to her art and paints Henry Ford Hospital, a devastating portrait of miscarriage and loss.  Tragedy continues when she receives a telegram to say her mother is gravely ill. Desperate, she travels home without Diego, and days later her mother dies. It is devastating, but her trauma and grief leads to one of her most visceral paintings: My Birth....

From the Curio channel: BBC Channel.