After her troubled husband Charles (Jean-Claude Drouot) viciously attacks their toddler son in a drug-crazed rage, beautiful young mother Helene (Audran) finds herself at odds with Paul's extremely wealthy father Ludovic (Bouquet), who reveals his intention to seize custody of his grandchild. Knowing he'll face a challenge in court, Ludovic hires money-hungry scam artist Paul (Cassel) to dig up some dirt on his daughter-in-law, a former strip teaser.

One of Chabrol's most jarring suspense films opens with a shocking scene of domestic violence before settling into a quiet, disturbing tale of moral corruption and wicked duplicity. Audran tweaks our sympathies as the vulnerable young mother who rents a boarding room across from the hospital where her son recuperates, only to find herself isolated and scorned by the elderly female tenants, then manipulated by Cassel's twisted schemes (which involve LSD, porn, and a dim-witted innocent). If this film didn't end on a psychedelic grace note, you could almost call it an experiment in psychological sadism. "Rupture" is a Hitchcockian marvel.