diff --git a/examples/non_standard_residues.py b/examples/non_standard_residues.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5413607
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/non_standard_residues.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# This example demonstrates how to add non-standard residues to
+# sequences handled by the Python IHM library. See the simple-docking.py example
+# for an introduction to the library.
+
+import ihm
+import ihm.dumper
+
+system = ihm.System()
+
+# IHM contains definitions for standard amino and nucleic acids, plus
+# a few common non-standard residues such as MSE and UNK. 
+# To create a new non-standard residue, we first need to create a chemical
+# component for it. In this case, we add a definition for norvaline, an
+# isomer of valine. IHM provides a ChemComp class for this purpose and a
+# number of more specialized subclasses. Since norvaline is a chiral peptide,
+# here we define it in its L- form using the LPeptideChemComp class.
+#
+# 'id' should match the officially defined name of the component, as defined
+#     in the chemical component dictionary: https://www.wwpdb.org/data/ccd
+#     (See also https://www3.rcsb.org/ligand/NVA)
+# 'code' is used to populate the primary sequence in the output mmCIF file.
+#     For non-standard residues it should normally match 'id'.
+# 'code_canonical' is the the one-letter code of the closest standard residue.
+#     Here we use 'V', valine.
+norvaline = ihm.LPeptideChemComp(id='NVA', code='NVA', code_canonical='V',
+                                 name='NORVALINE', formula='C5 H11 N O2')
+
+# The Entity constructor takes a sequence of either or both one-letter codes
+# and ChemComp objects, so now we can make a sequence containing both
+# alanine and norvaline:
+entity1 = ihm.Entity(['A', 'A', norvaline, 'A'], description='First entity')
+
+# If a particular non-standard residue is commonly used in your own software,
+# and you have assigned a one-letter code for it, you can subclass
+# the ihm Alphabet class appropriately. Here we extend the normal set of
+# one-letter codes (uppercase) for standard L- amino acids to add 'n' for
+# norvaline:
+
+class MyAlphabet(ihm.LPeptideAlphabet):
+    # Alphabet contains a _comps dictionary that is a simple mapping from
+    # codes (usually one-letter) to ChemComp objects
+    _comps = {}
+    _comps.update(ihm.LPeptideAlphabet._comps)
+    _comps['n'] = norvaline
+
+# Now we can pass a primary sequence using our custom alphabet to include
+# norvaline alongside standard cysteine:
+entity2 = ihm.Entity('CCnC', alphabet=MyAlphabet, description="Second entity")
+
+system.entities.extend((entity1, entity2))
+
+# Once the system is complete, we can write it out to an mmCIF file:
+with open('output.cif', 'w') as fh:
+    ihm.dumper.write(fh, [system])
diff --git a/test/test_examples.py b/test/test_examples.py
index b35a422..3878e09 100644
--- a/test/test_examples.py
+++ b/test/test_examples.py
@@ -51,6 +51,18 @@ def test_ligands_water_example(self):
         self.assertEqual(len(contents), 144)
         os.unlink(out)
 
+    def test_non_standard_residues_example(self):
+        """Test non_standard_residues example"""
+        subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "non_standard_residues.py"],
+                              cwd=get_example_dir())
+        out = get_example_path("output.cif")
+
+        # Make sure that a complete output file was produced
+        with open(out) as fh:
+            contents = fh.readlines()
+        self.assertEqual(len(contents), 74)
+        os.unlink(out)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()