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In Los Angeles, writer Roger Altar, who has won public
acclaim but critical scorn for his pulp novels, hires architect Larry
Coe to design a house based on the photos of a prize-winning house that
Larry designed eight years earlier. While shopping at the local
market, Larry meets his new neighbor, Margaret Gault, and is rendered
speechless by her beauty. When Margaret returns home, her mother,
Mrs. Wagner, whom Margaret has never forgiven for committing adultery,
states that she knows that Margaret is not in love with her husband Ken
and predicts that she also will be unfaithful one day.
The next day, Larry deliberately walks his son David to
the school bus stop so that he can meet Margaret, whom he calls Maggie,
and convince her to accompany him to the Bel Air site where he is to
build Roger’s house. Larry, excited by the prospect of building an
innovative structure, is pleased that Maggie shares his enthusiasm and
has even sought out the eight-year-old magazine article containing the
photo of his last major accomplishment.
When Larry sends the completed plans to Roger, Roger is
fearful that he will be laughed at for building an "odd ball" house and
balks until Larry accuses him of pandering to his critics and convinces
him to take a chance. One night, while Larry and his wife Eve are
dining with Larry’s former employer, Stanley Baxter, Stanley asks Larry
to design a new wing for a factory in Hawaii. Larry, who longs for
his earlier acclaim and fears that life is passing him by, is reluctant
to work on such a prosaic project, but Eve, concerned with financial
stability, pressures him into accepting the commission.
At the bus stop the next morning, Larry invites Maggie to
join him at the Bel Air job site, but she refuses. When Larry
admits that he wants to see her again, however, Maggie, feeling
neglected and unloved by her husband, whose ardor has dwindled over the
years, agrees to meet Larry the following evening. On the night of
her assignation, Maggie tells Ken that she is going out with friends;
when she mentions his lack of sexual interest, he silences her. At
a Malibu hotel, Maggie confides to Larry that her father was the only
other person who ever called her Maggie. After a tenuous start,
the lovers finally consummate their affair.
At home, Larry sees his wife, washing the dishes and
wearing her hair in curlers, and longs for the sexy Maggie. Using
the house project as an excuse for spending time away from home, Larry
continues to see Maggie. One day, when Maggie goes to meet Larry
at a restaurant, she is tailed by a man. Excusing herself from the
table to call home, Maggie is accosted by the man in the lobby.
Hearing the commotion, Larry comes to Maggie’s defense and slugs the
man, who then runs off. Although Maggie initially claims that she
does not know her assailant, she finally admits that he forced himself
on her the summer before. When she recalls the incident, in which
she left her door open and took sleeping pills, Larry becomes enraged
and accuses her of wanting that to happen. Stung, Maggie drives
off.
That night, the tormented Larry calls Maggie’s house but,
when Ken answers, he hangs up the phone. When Maggie fails to
appear at the bus stop the next morning, Larry goes to Maggie’s house,
where he is met by Mrs. Wagner. After Larry leaves, Maggie’s
perceptive mother comments "so now it has happened to you."
Concerned with Larry's distance and hoping to draw him back into her
life, Eve decides to throw a neighborhood party and calls Maggie to
invite her and Ken, but Maggie hedges about accepting the invitation.
At the party, Stanley tells Larry that his company was so
impressed by his work on the factory that they want him to design an
entire city in Hawaii, a project that would take five years to complete
and require a move to Hawaii. Demurring, Larry asks Stanley not to
mention the offer to Eve until he has a chance to discuss it with her.
Larry is shocked by the arrival of Maggie and Ken, and later, alone with
Maggie, asks her why she came. Just as Larry writes "I love you"
on a sheet of paper, Felix Anders, the Coes’s snide neighbor, enters the
room and Larry crumples the paper.
After the Gaults leave, Felix insinuates that he knows
Larry is having an affair and warns him that Eve is also suspicious.
When Larry denies the accusation, Felix hands him the crumpled love
note. After Eve goes to Palm Springs for the weekend with her
parents, Larry unexpectedly meets Maggie at an amusement park, where
they have both taken their children. Warning that Felix knows
about them, Larry declares that either she wants "more or less," to
which Maggie responds she wants their relationship to stay the same.
Larry then suggests that they stop seeing each other.
Soon after, Stanley phones the house; when Eve answers,
tells her about the Hawaiian job offer. When Larry comes home,
Eve, upset, asks why he never mentioned the offer, and the two argue.
As Larry storms out of the house, Eve tells him not to come back.
Larry goes to visit Roger, who, although he has received rave reviews
for his new book, is still unhappy. When the womanizing Roger
envies Larry because "he is married, has a family and knows where he’s
going," Larry replies that he is a phony and confides that he has been
unfaithful. Larry concludes by saying that although he loves his
mistress, he does not want to hurt his wife. He then calls Maggie
and arranges to meet her the next day at Roger’s completed house.
Meanwhile, Eve, who is about to step into the shower, is
paid an unexpected visit by Felix, who begins to flirt with her
menacingly. When he tugs at her bathrobe, she becomes hysterical
and throws him out. As Felix leaves, Larry pulls up in his car
and, upon finding Eve in tears, deduces what has happened. After
Larry slugs Felix, Felix smugly observes that Larry is no better than
he. Finally admitting to Larry that she knows he is having an
affair, Eve asks him to leave and he takes refuge in his office, located
in a wing of the house. Later, Eve enters the office sobbing and,
after asking what she did wrong, avows that she cannot live without him.
The next day, when Larry and Maggie meet at Roger’s
vacant house, Larry tells her that he is going to Hawaii to build a
city. As they acknowledge their love for each other, they are
interrupted by the contractor, who assumes that Maggie is Larry’s wife.
Saying goodbye, Maggie drives down the driveway and out of Larry’s life. |
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