This dark comedy, set in Vienna, explores virtue and sin. Claudio has been arrested for getting his mistress pregnant and Angelo, the strict, morality-spouting judge, has sentenced him to death. When Claudio's sister Isabella, a novice nun, begs Angelo to show mercy, he is instantly smitten, and offers Isabella a choice: her virginity for her brother's life.

"A Washington Press Square book." Opposite pages, with notes facing the text that they explain, numbered in duplicate.