This breathtaking film based on E.M. Forster's classic novel is an emotional and deeply personal story of love and class struggle in 1928 India. Adela Quested (Judy Davis) travels to India to visit her fiance, who is the city magistrate of Chandrapore. She is accompanied on the adventure by his mother Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft), an elderly woman who is appalled at the treatment of the Indians by the British who rule and occupy Chandrapore. Both women befriend a young Indian man, Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), who -- over-stepping the accepted boundaries between the classes -- invites the women on a picnic excursion to the Marabar caves. In a strange turn of events, the young doctor is accused of attempting to rape Miss Quested.

What actually did happen in the Marabar caves is the central riddle of this lush, engrossing film.