Around 1750, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire. When she asks to renounce her vows, she finds herself caught in a fatal trap.

Before his more fantastical and spectacular stretch of work throughout the ‘70s, Jacques Rivette followed his Nouvelle Vague breakthrough Paris Belongs to Us with this adaptation of Denis Diderot’s controversial 18th-century novel—starring an entrancing Anna Karina at the height of her fame.