Salpetriere. It was called the “mecca of confinement." A Parisian hospital for women of abnormal constitution, for the female dregs of society. Causes of death included “masturbation, bad reading habits, nostalgia and misery.” In its heyday it was called the Versaille of pain, a living museum of pathology , 5000 strong. It is here that Charcot, the founder of neurology, rediscovers hysteria.

One young woman, Augustine, just 15, is admitted in 1882 for paralysis of sensation in her right arm and attacks of severe hysteria. Wet collodion photography is too slow to capture Augustine’s “fits,” so Charcot and Regnard have Augustine reenact her hysterical seizures. She becomes a “star” performer of her ward, embodying the iconography of an era. Hypnotic experiments on Friday mornings in the filled amphitheater, delirium induced by ether. Scenes of hysterical contractures, catalepsie provoked by light, contractions of the tongue induced by a tuning fork, and Augustine flirting with her physician experimenters. Its all part of the routine. It’s the story of one young hysteric who when she relapses, is unable to perform and is returned to her cell. She dresses as a man and escapes from Salpetriere, disappearing into history without a trace.

The viscous and entropic lense of epoxy resin captures Augustine as she reenters our world again.