A forbidden affair between an affluent landowner’s daughter and a common farmer is facilitated by a young boy who becomes a secret messenger between the two lovers. In one of several collaborations with screenwriter Pinter, director Joseph Losey explores the dire consequences of the English class system and provides a near perfect evocation of turn-of-the century country life and social repression in a film which was honored with the Palme d’Or at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival.