Pierre Choderlos de Lados' tale set in France during the Anden Régime before the revolution of 1789 is an extraordinary tale of intrigue and moral depravity told in epistolary form.
Sparring with one another, the two main protagonists - the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont - scheme and plot; one obsessed by her own vanity, the other by his lust for a virtuous, married woman, Mme de Tourvel. In the pursuit of their own entertainment, de Merteuil and de Valmont play a dangerous game of seduction, attempting to manipulate the objects of their desire, including Mme de Tourvel's daughter, the innocent Cécile de Volanges, and her music tutor, the handsome Chevalier Danceny. In Dangerous Liaisons, Lacios unveils the aristocracy for what it really was, while creating a powerful psychological drama which shows that those who live by the sword often die by it.