PML nuclear bodies are matrix-associated domains that recruit an astonishing variety of seemingly unrelated proteins. Since their discovery in the early 1960s, PML bodies have fascinated cell biologists because of their beauty and their tight association with cellular disorders. The identification of PML, a gene involved in an oncogenic chromosomal translocation, as the key organizer of these domains drew instant interest onto them. The multiple levels of PML body regulation by a specific posttranslational modification, sumoylation, have raised several unsolved issues. Functionally, PML bodies may sequester, modify or degrade partner proteins, but in many ways, PML bodies still constitute an enigma.