Left to clean up a city rampant with corruption, Angelo lays down the law sentencing a young man, Claudio, to death for impregnating his own girlfriend Juliet before marriage. Angelo’s particular moral weaknesses surface when Claudio’s sister, Isabella, a novice nun, pleads for her brother’s life. For Angelo, Isabella’s beauty and piety hold an erotic charm and he presents her with a shocking proposition. How far will Isabella go to save her brother’s life? Who has true authority to judge another? Shakespeare offers no easy answers in this dark comedy of desires.