Jacques Rivette

In eighteenth-century France 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. Suzanne's virtue brings disaster to everyone in this faithful adaptation of a bitter attack on religious abuses by the Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot.

The film follows a young literature student who befriends the members of a loose-knit group of twenty-somethings in Paris, united by the apparent suicide of an acquaintance. Suspicious of the death, she investigates to see if conspiracy was involved.