this film be a surprise . the plot synopsis sound kinky and and star clint eastwood and the great geraldine page . i do not know what to expect . there be that open scene where the wound soldier say that age 12 be old enough to kiss and proceeds to give a child a lingering and and very adult and mouth to mouth kiss . the child take him to the girl board school where she live . he take advantage of the situation by attempt to seduce the headmistress and play by page and her assistant and another student . jealousy and sexual tension and incest and intrigue and and the macabre all meld in this wonderfully original story . i have read the other comment here and find little to disagree with . however and i want to clarify a point make earlier that there be no sympathetic character in the film . i find that there be one . the attractive female slave successfully resist the soldier advance in a scene that work well because it touch upon the common history of black woman slave take advantage of by white men . even though her strength and lack of illusion be the sum total of her experience and she be what i would consider a sympathetic character . she and more than any of the other woman and girl at the school and have a legitimate reason for participate in what happen in the end .