En mycket bra film som baseras på Marquis de Sades liv, en man som chockat generationer med sina erotiskt laddade verk. Imprisoned in the Charenton asylum near Paris, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) continues to produce his notorious erotic writings. When he finishes his latest novel, ‘Justine’, the young chambermaid Madeleine (Kate Winslet) smuggles it out to be published. The authorities are shocked by the book and demand that de Sade be silenced, but even after he has been tortured and his pens and papers taken away, the Marquis carries on the fight to express himself.