The life of a young woman is thrown into chaos when her parents take in a handsome lodger. Having embarked on an affair, the lodger goes to Rome to divorce his wife. Unable to live apart, our hero leaves home only to fall prey to the lusts of admirers, unsavoury criminals and utopian do-gooders.

The title may be suggestive of Borowczyk’s late-period erotica, but The Story of Sin proves an elegantly restrained portrait of doomed romance. The vividly inhabited period setting and acute female perspective make for one of his best films, reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s later masterwork, Tess.