Vicente blackmails Maria's mother and tells her that Maria's immortal soul is condemned to Hell. Only the convent, and a sizeable cash donation, can save her soul.

"What's money compared to the soul of your poor child?"

Father Vicente is truly a despicable character. It's bad enough he has designs for Maria's body and steals her away from her poor mother, but he has to blackmail the woman, forcing her to give up her life's savings and work the rest of her life or face the Inquisition.

In the cloister, Maria is subject to Mother Alma (Ana Zanatti), a stern and sadistic taskmaster.

Everyone in the convent is taken with Maria's innocence and youthful beauty. Father Vicente, Mother Alma and Maria's fellow nuns all have lustful designs for the girl.

Vicente uses the confessional to interrogate Maria and probe her deepest sexual secrets, fantasies and even her dreams. He becomes aroused and even climaxes at Maria's account.

"Through your dreams you have sinned terribly, you know that. We will purify you."

Maria's "purification" amounts to torture. She is forced to wear a vine of thorns when she sleeps, she is made to walk on a bed of thorns, and eventually, she is bound, whipped and forced to endure other tortures.

As it turns out, Mother Alma, and the rest of the nuns, are part of a devil-worshipping cult. Mother Alma spends her nights in ritualistic lesbianism with her subordinate nuns. Each night, they pleasure her in the hopes of breeding a child for Satan.

Maria's punishment continues to escalate. After Maria confesses to Father Vicente that she's had dreams of performing oral sex on her cousin, he takes advantage of her. Under the guise of expunging the lustful thoughts from her mind, he forces her to act out her dream and perform oral sex on him.

Finally, Maria's virginity is sacrificed to Satan in an erotic ritual. Mother Alma summons Satan himself (Herbert Fux).

This scene, while steeped in eroticism, is marred by the goofy looking Satan. Herbert Fux looks like Seinfeld's Kramer with a single, cheap-looking horn sprouting from his head. He looks more like the Jester of Unicorns than the Prince of Lies.

Maria's torture just gets worse and worse. Finally, Father Vicente and Mother Alma submit her to the Inquisition as being possessed.

When it seems that all hope is lost, and Maria is soon to be burned at the stake, she sits down and writes a letter to God, begging for forgiveness.

In a strange twist, it seems that God answers the letter as it is found by the Prince of Portugal. After reading about Maria's torturous trials within the convent, he rushes to the execution and stops it, saving Maria and sending his soldiers after her persecutors.

Reviewer's Thoughts:
The movie is beautifully filmed and the women are quite lovely.

The story is strongly character-driven. Mother Alma is the stern, domineering Mother Superior, always in control, always in a position of power, dishing out punishment. She is convinced that the women she tortures will come to enjoy it. Perhaps this is true in some cases, her charges seem to enjoy being dominated by her, but not in Maria's case.

Maria is perfectly young, innocent, and well-meaning. She truly believes that Mother Alma is trying to help her, that there is something wrong with her that makes her sinful and deserving of punishment. She tries so hard to do the right thing. You really feel sorry for her.

Father Vicente is simply despicable. He cares only for his own lust and he will do anything to satisfy his selfish desires. It wasn't enough to seperate Maria from her mother simply because he fancied the girl, he had to go and blackmail the poor woman out of her life's savings. When he gets Maria to the convent, he exploits his position of trust and power to force Maria to tell him her sexual secrets (so he can masturbate to them) and finally, uses her secrets as an excuse to rape her.

If you're looking for erotica, there's no shortage in this movie. Jess Franco delivers with lustful, lesbian nuns, satanic sex rituals, lecherous priests, and plenty of exposed breasts and naked nuns.