In their twelfth year of marriage Joanna and Mark
Wallace are en route to the French Riviera for a business and social
meeting with Mark's benefactor, architect Maurice Dalbret.
Joanna and Mark had met years before on such a trip, when Mark was
then a fledgling architect hitchhiking through Europe and Joanna was
a music student on tour with a group of American schoolgirls. Their
first encounter blossomed into romance and, by the time they reached
the Côte d'Azur they knew they were in love and ready for marriage.
Soon afterward they returned to Europe, but their
motor trip was spoiled by their companions, the snobbish Cathy and
Howard Manchester and their obnoxious daughter Ruth. Having
learned their lesson, Joanna and Mark took their next vacation
alone. Then, while Joanna was pregnant, Mark made a business
trip by himself and experienced his first marital infidelity.
Success came fairly easy for Mark, but his affluence
and sense of self-importance alienated Joanna; eventually she
drifted into an indiscreet affair of her own.
Driven to the brink of divorce, they are now forced
to evaluate themselves and their marriage. Mutually willing to
concede that they have changed but have grown maturely dependent
upon each other, they are able to save their marriage.