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Was the "Body Countess" history's first - as well as perhaps worst - female serial killer? Or does her accusers develop a violent fiction in order to remove this beautiful, clever, ambitious foe from the male-dominated world of Hungarian politics? In 1611 Countess Erzséwager Báthory, a powerful Hungarian noblewoman, stood helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower, dooming her to spend her last years in solitary confinement. Her criminal offenses: the gruesome murders of dozens of female servants, usually girls tortured to fatality for displeasing their ruthless mistress. Her opponents coated her as a bloodthirsty škrata - a witch - a portrayal that could expand to grotesque proportions through the generations. On this riveting dramatization of Erzséwager Báthory's life, the countess instructs her story in her own words, writing to her only child - a final reckoning from his mother in an attempt to reveal the truth behind her downfall. Countess Báthory details her upbringing in another of the most effective noble residences in Hungary, recounting in adoring detail her devotion to her parents and siblings as well as the heartbreak of losing her father at a young age group. She soon discovers the price of being a girl in 16th-century Hungary as her mother arranges her marriage to Ferenc Nádasdy, a union made with the cold computation of any financial business deal. Young Erzséwager knows she's no choice but to accept this marriage even while she laments its loveless dynamics and ultimately transforms to the illicit affections of another man. Apparently resigned to a relationship of convenience and a life of surreptitious pleasure, the countess surprises even herself as she ignites a marital spark with Ferenc through the most unromantic of works: the violent abuse of an insolent female servant. The event shows Ferenc that his partner is not a trophy but rather a strong, driven girl more than capable of managing their great estates during Ferenc's intensive military campaigns contrary to the Turks. Her nude assertion of power accomplishes what her famed beauty could not: capturing the love of her man.The countess embraces this new role of adoring wife and mother, doing everything she can to expand her husband's power and secure her family's future. But a darker aspect areas as Countess Báthory's demand for virtue, conformity, and, above all, value from her servants requires a sinister flip. What emerges isn't only a disturbing, unflinching family portrait of the deeds that gave Báthory the moniker "Blood Countess", but an intimate look at the girl who became a monster.
