Irene, the wife of a prominent German scientist, Albert Wagner, has been having a love affair which she goes to great pains to hide in order to keep her husband blissfully unaware. But when the lover’s jealous ex finds out, she sadistically extorts Irene, causing her to spiral out of control.

Based on one of Stefan Zweig’s most powerful novellas, Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman’s last collaboration is a noirish storm of volcanic passions. Enveloped in paranoia and guilt, bourgeois domesticity unnervingly buckles, exposing the fragile sociopolitical situation of 1950s West Germany.