When a striking young stranger (Terence Stamp, The Limey) arrives at a household and sets about seducing each family member he leaves behind an inescapable void of confusion that leads them on an odyssey of self-discovery and departure from the norm.

Patriarch of the family, Paolo (Massimo Girotti, Facing Window) is compelled to relinquish his factory to the workers, matriarch Lucia (Silvana Mangano, Dune) departs on a series of casual sexual encounters, Pietro loses interest in his artistic pursuits and Odetta falls into a stake of catatonia. Emilia (Laura Betti, La Dolce Vita) the servant becomes the last vestige of hope.

Controversial director of Salo and Porcile, Pier Paolo Pasolini's mys­terious and voyeuristic study of family dynamics is as beautiful as it is confounding, captivating as it is confronting – a complex cross-section of sex and class in bourgeois Milan – haunting to the last.