让娜（玛利亚•施奈德 Maria Schneider 饰）穿行大街而过，来到一个旅馆，怪诞的服务员给了她一串空房间的钥匙。她开门而入发现已经有个中年男人在那里。简单交流后两人目光如炽，在空荡的房间里激烈地亲热。结束后安娜来到火车站接男友汤姆，汤姆正在拍摄电影，准备记下与女友恋爱的发展过程。此后让娜经常到那间公寓与中年男人约会。中年男人保罗（马龙•白兰度 Marlon Brando 饰）来自巴黎，出轨的妻子在不久前自杀，他十分痛苦。让娜试图了解保罗，向他敞开心扉，而保罗却一再拒绝她的窥探亦不希望了解她。汤姆向让娜求婚，让娜答应了。两人在选择婚纱时，让娜因汤姆重视拍摄效果冷落自己，冲进大雨找到保罗……While looking for an apartment, Jeanne, a beautiful young Parisienne, encounters Paul, a mysterious American expatriate mourning his wife's recent suicide. Instantly drawn to each other, they have a stormy, passionate affair, in which they do not reveal their names to each other. Their relationship deeply affects their lives, as Paul struggles with his wife's death and Jeanne prepares to marry her fiance, Tom, a film director making a cinema-verite documentary about her.