The poet Dante is taken by Virgil through the city of desolation and into the centre of hell. What he sees is not simply an apocalyptic vision of the punishment that awaits sinners after death but also the very real horrors committed by human hands on Earth. The film is based on Gustav Doré’s nineteeth century engravings illustrating Dante’s The Divine Comedy and all the images are produced by engraving directly into the surface of 35mm colour filmstock.