The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Silvia is introduced as a successful manager at a chemical laboratory in Rome and is dating Roberto. They visit Afro-Italian friends, where Andy discusses witchcraft, black magic and human sacrifice as part of local lore. He warns that cults exist that target unknowing victims, setting a chilling tone for what follows.

Shortly after, Silvia begins to experience disturbing visions of her mother Marta, sitting in a chair and wearing a black dress while applying perfume. She also recalls traumatic memories of Marta being raped by a man not Silvia's father, who later died at sea. These memories blur the line between memory and illusion.

Strange events shake Silvia's grip on reality: a vase from her past reappears in her apartment, a bouquet dies suddenly, and a mysterious little girl representing the younger Silvia keeps appearing. Neighbours and coworkers seem to watch her with too much attention, fueling a sense that everyone around her is in on something. The paranoia deepens as the world grows increasingly unstable.

Francesca invites Silvia to a séance, attended by Andy and Mr. Rossetti. A blind psychic named Orchidea conducts the session, tapping into Silvia's troubled past. The experience unsettles Silvia and foreshadows the hidden networks around her.

Orchidea reveals that Silvia's past includes her father drowning at sea and Silvia pushing her mother off the balcony. The psychic also warns that Silvia's stepfather Nicola may continue pursuing her. The revelations escalate Silvia's fear and dependence on the séance for answers.

After a frantic exit, it is revealed that Andy, Francesca and Orchidea are part of a cult. They convene in an abandoned tunnel and don blue lab coats before slipping away into the darkness.

Francesca is found dead in her bathtub, and the next day Silvia returns to her apartment to discover that Francesca's cremated remains have been left there. The discovery deepens Silvia's paranoia and sense that people around her are in on the conspiracy.

Silvia discovers Marta's black dress back in her bedroom, as if her mother's memory refuses to stay buried. Later, her younger self appears again to present a box containing the neighbor's dead cat, intensifying the visions. The boundary between past and present becomes increasingly unstable.

Silvia encounters her stepfather Nicola in her old family house, where he attempts to molest her. She flees the house as he pursues, and in self-defence she strikes him in the head with a concrete block, killing him.

That night Silvia brings Roberto to Nicola's presumed body, but it has vanished, heightening her fear that nothing is real and that the danger is wider than she thought.

Silvia bursts into Mr. Rossetti's apartment and murders him with a meat cleaver, then stabs Roberto. She arranges their bodies around a dining table in a mock tea party, a grotesque display of her unraveling, before pursuing her younger self to the roof where they both fall off and land on the street.

Silvia's naked corpse is laid out in a dark chamber of the abandoned tunnel. A large group of cultists dressed in blue lab coats surround her body, cut her open, and devour the organs before dissolving back into the tunnels, revealing the cult's true extent.