Breillat's controversial examination of female sexuality sees schoolteacher Marie (Ducey) set off on a series of sexual adventures after her male model boyfriend loses interest in her. She picks up Paolo (played by Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi) at a dance club, gets tied up by her school principal, who happens to be a bondage expert, encounters a violent stranger, and is examined by a team of gynecologists, pondering the nature of her own sexuality throughout. Though some have found its graphic imagery distressing, Romance intelligently creates startling new metaphors for the classic mind-body dilemma.