Les Åmes en Peine plot
The French countryside at the end of the 19th century. Jacob is a deeply religious man who supposedly preserves souls. Convinced that he delivers people from a mysterious disease, he locks them up behind wooden masks after sewing their eyes and mouths shut. His daughter Zélie lives under his tyrannical rule and dreams of freedom. When Jacob sells her beloved horse, her resentment reaches a boiling point, and she decides to defy him by hiding an infected soldier in the barn. However, when she is assaulted by a neighbor, Jacob is convinced of her sinfulness and brutally mutilates her.