Ursula (Bardot) returns from the convent to the Spanish town where her Aunt Florentine (Valli) lives unhappily with Count Ribera (Nieto), a macho brute and womanizer. A local malcontent, Lambert (Boyd) has returned from political exile to find his sister dead by suicide over the Count; and a deadly feud is reignited. Complicating matters is Aunt Florentine's unwillingness to admit her love for Lambert, and virgin Ursula's instantaneous attraction to him. It's serious, overheated melodrama in a commercial package that reveals Vadim to be basically the sex merchant everyone accuses him of being.