A sumptuous drama set in late 19th-century France, Diary of a Chambermaid is a raw-edged tangle of fetishism and murder set against the backdrop of the burgeoning fascism of the era.

Jeanne Moreau is Celestine, an attractive young woman, who arrives from Paris to become chambermaid for an eccentric and decadent aristocratic family at their country chateau. She soon gets herself entangled in a sexual game of cat and mouse with her flirtatious employer (Michel Piccoli).