After years in Mexican exile, Buñuel returned to his native Spain to make this dark account of corruption, which was immediately banned. A young nun, full of charity, kindness, and idealistic illusions about humanity, visits her uncle and tries to help some local peasants and beggars.

Hired as a maid by a rich family in Normandy, Celestine is forced to undergo the unpleasant habits of her insufferable hosts. Their obsessions and perversions lay bare the right-wing, fascist worldview of the provincial bourgeoisie in 1920s France.