A riveting, opulently decadent period drama that tells the story of the famous and perverse aristocrat, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush). After being accused of sadism and incendiary sexual practices, the eccentric graphomaniac is imprisoned at the Charenton insane asylum where, thanks to the enlightened Abbé de Coulmier, he is allowed to vent his desires on paper. The beautiful and astute laundress Madeleine becomes an intermediary between the prison and the publisher, thus the Marquis’s manuscripts see the light of day; they also come to the attention of Napoleon himself, who intends to silence the obsessive writer for good: the psychiatrist Royer-Collard is summoned to Charenton and his cruel remedial methods have dire consequences, not only for the Marquis.