Pierre Lachenay, a middle-aged married father and renowned writer, lecturer, and editor of a literary magazine, flies to
Lisbon. As he disembarks, photographers approach Pierre and ask him to pose for a picture with Nicole, a young
stewardess. After delivering a lecture in a sold-out auditorium, Pierre returns to his hotel, where Nicole is also staying. He takes the elevator with her and, having noticed the room number on her key, calls her from his room to invite her for a drink. She declines, but shortly after hanging up, calls back. They agree to go out for drinks the following evening, even though Pierre had been scheduled to catch a plane at noon. On their date, Pierre and Nicole talk in a bar until sunrise, and then return to their hotel and have sex. The next day, she slips him her phone number on the flight back to Paris, and Pierre tries to call Nicole that night while he and his wife Franca are entertaining friends. However, Nicole is not at home. When Pierre gets hold of Nicole the next day, they meet up. He begins to use excuses to slip away and meet Nicole at the airport between her flights. They arrange to spend the night together, though not at her apartment, as the landlady knows her parents. They go to a nightclub and plan to stay at a hotel, but they do not check in, as the circumstances begin to make them feel sordid. Pierre takes Nicole home and invites her to go on an overnight trip to
Reims the following week. She agrees, and, not wanting him to return to Franca, invites Pierre up to her apartment. Pierre and Nicole drive to Reims and check into a hotel. He only agreed to his friend Clément's request to introduce a screening of
Marc Allégret's 1951 documentary
Avec André Gide so he could be alone with Nicole. However, he has to go to a dinner, give his speech, and then go out for drinks with Clément, while Nicole sits alone at the hotel, cannot get tickets to the sold-out screening, and is repeatedly propositioned by a man on the street. To avoid going to a reception after the screening, Pierre says that he has to return to Paris, but Clément asks for a ride. Pierre agrees, only to ditch Clément and get Nicole from the hotel. After driving through the night, Pierre and Nicole reach an inn in the countryside. They enjoy themselves, until Pierre calls Franca to say that he had to extend his stay in Reims and learns that she knows that he is lying. Pierre drops Nicole off at her apartment and goes home, where Franca accuses him of having an affair. He claims that he just needed time alone, but she does not believe him and says that they should separate. Calling Franca's bluff, Pierre does not argue and goes to sleep at his office. Franca informs Pierre that she is initiating divorce proceedings. When he goes to retrieve his belongings, she alternates between treating him coldly, hitting him, begging him for forgiveness, and kissing him. They end up having sex. As Pierre is leaving, Franca asks if he wants to return to her, but he replies that it would never work. Franca's friend Odile later sees the state Franca is in. Odile fears that Franca may attempt suicide and throws away sleeping pills she finds in the bathroom. At a restaurant, Pierre gets embarrassed by Nicole's loud talking, and she asks him to take her home. Pierre apologizes and says that he has had a tough week and that he misses his daughter. When Pierre later shows Nicole the apartment he plans for them to share, she says that she has realized that they are incompatible and ends the affair. Meanwhile, Franca uses a receipt from the pocket of one of Pierre's jackets to pick up photographs Pierre took of him and Nicole on their romantic weekend. Franca then goes to a restaurant that Pierre frequents, tosses the photos at him, and shoots him with a shotgun. Dropping the weapon, she sits down and smiles. ==Cast==