Hailed as the greatest film of all time by Andrew Sarris, the godfather of American film criticism, Viennese master Max Ophüls' sumptuous tale of tragic love in the belle époque follows the circuitous route of a pair of earrings as they pass from France to Constantinople, from husband to moneylender to lover to mistress and back again, their journey revealing a society riddled by hypocrisy and betrayal.