A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.
Chiara Mastroianni
as Mme de Clèves
Pedro Abrunhosa
as Pedro Abrunhosa
Antoine Chappey
as M. de Clèves
Leonor Silveira
as La religieuse
Maria João Pires
as Maria João Pires
Luís Miguel Cintra
as M. da Silva
Stanislas Merhar
as François de Guise
Ricardo Trêpa
as Intrus
Anny Romand
as Mme de Silva
Françoise Fabian
as Mme de Chartres
