A mystical and Marxist work, Theorem concerns a handsome, versatile young man who bewitches a wealthy middle-class family living in Milan. His sexual, emotional and intellectual hold over them is complete. When he abandons them, their desolation catapults each member of the family into a new life. Published in 1968, Theorem's rejection of conventional morality caused a public outcry. It deals with many of Pasolini's principal themes—the rejection of accepted morality in order to free oneself, the revolutionary power of the divine as opposed to the Church and the importance of individual as opposed to collective awareness. Remarkable in content and style, Theorem was written and filmed simultaneously; the action of the novel is seen as though through the eye of a camera, resembling a scenario in form.