A Chicago playwright uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time and meet the actress whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.
The movie opens with college student Richard Collier gathering rave reviews for his debut play. At the party, he comes face to face with an old woman who presses something in his hand and whispers "Come back to me." He opens his hand to find an old pocket watch. Eight years later, Collier is a successful playwright in the middle of a break-up and writer's block. He leaves Chicago for awhile to think things out and finds himself near his alma mater at the Grand Hotel. While wandering around the hotel, he finds a photograph of a beautiful young woman. Richard is entranced, and attempts to find out whatever he can about her. During the course of his research, he learns she was Elise McKenna, a famous actress from the turn of the century. He also discovers she was the mysterious old woman who gave him the pocket watch. Finally determining that he must meet her somehow, he employs self-hypnosis and wills himself back to 1912. He meets Elise and they fall in love, which does not make her manager, William Fawcett Robinson, rather happy. Will their love survive Robinson's disapproval? Will Richard be able to remain in 1912?—Kathy Chelsen
In 1972, college theater student Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve) celebrates the success of his first play. During the celebration, he is approached by an elderly woman who places an antique pocket watch into his hand and pleads "Come back to me." Richard does not recognize the woman, who returns to her own residence afterward. Eight years later, Richard is a successful playwright living in Chicago, but has recently broken up with his girlfriend and is struggling with writer's block. Feeling stressed from writing his play, he decides to take a break and travels out of town to the Grand Hotel. While looking at a display in the hotel's museum, Richard becomes entranced by a strangely captivating photograph of a mysterious, beautiful young woman. With the help of Arthur Biehl (Bill Irwin), an old man who has been at the hotel since 1910, Richard discovers that she is Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), a famous early 20th-century stage actress. Upon digging deeper, he learns that she was the aged woman who gave him the pocket watch eight years earlier, but died afterward later that same evening.
Richard visits Laura Roberts (Teresa Wright), Elise's former housekeeper and companion. While there, he discovers a music box that plays the 18th variation on Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninoff, his favorite musical piece. Among Elise's personal effects is a book on time travel written by an old college professor, Dr. Gerard Finney (George Voskovec). Richard becomes obsessed with traveling back to 1912 and meeting Elise, who he has fallen in love. He seeks out Professor Finney, who believes that he briefly traveled through time through the power of self-hypnosis. To accomplish this process, one must remove all things from sight that are related to the current time. Finney warns Richard that such a process would leave one very weak physically, possibly dangerously so. Back in his hotel room, Richard dresses himself in an early 20th-century suit, and attempts to will himself into 1912 using tape-recorded suggestions. The attempt fails because he lacks real conviction, but after finding an old guest book from 1912 containing his signature, Richard realizes that he will eventually succeed.
Richard again hypnotizes himself (without the benefit of a modern tape recorder) and allows his absolute faith in his eventual success to become the tipping point or trigger for the journey back through time. He slowly falls asleep and awakens to the sound of whinnying horses in the year 1912. Richard looks all over the hotel for Elise, even meeting Arthur Biehl as a little boy, but has no luck finding Elise. Finally, he stumbles upon Elise walking by a tree near the lake. She seems to swoon slightly when seeing him, but then suddenly asks upon meeting him "Is it you?" McKenna's overbearing manager, William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer), abruptly intervenes and sends Richard away. Richard stubbornly continues to pursue Elise until she agrees to accompany him on a stroll through the surrounding idyllic landscape. Richard ultimately asks why Elise wondered aloud "Is it you?" and she replies that Robinson somehow knows that she will meet a man who will change her life forever, and that she should be afraid. Richard then shows Elise the same pocket watch which she will eventually give him 60 years in the future.
Upon returning to the hotel, Elisa invites Richard to her play. He attends the comical-farce and she, in an almost trance-like state, recites an impromptu monologue dedicated to him. During intermission, he finds her posing formally for a photograph. Upon spotting Richard, Elise breaks into a radiant smile and veritably glows with soft affection. Just then, the camera's flash goes off and forever captures that wonderous moment in time. We now know that this picture is the same one that Richard will see 68 years later on a wall near the lobby at the Grand Hotel. He later receives a letter from Robinson asking to meet him immediately and saying that it is a matter of life and death. Robinson wants Richard to leave Elise, saying it is for her own good. Richard thinks Robinson is in love with Elise, but Robinson states that he is obsessed with her being a star and has no romantic interest in her. When Richard professes his love for her, Robinson has him bound and locked inside the stables. Robinson then informs Elise that Richard has left her and isn't the one, though she doesn't believe him and professes her love for Richard.
Richard wakes up the next morning and escapes his constraints. He discovers that the acting troupe has already left for Denver, though Elise has returned to the hotel to find him. Richard then goes out to the hotel's capricious deck and begins giving into despair, but presently perceives Elise calling his name and running towards him. They return to his room together and it is there that Elise becomes truly intimate with a man for the very first time in her life. Later that evening, she asks Richard to marry him and he readily accepts. She then informs him that the first thing she will do for him is to buy him a new suit (the suit Richard has been wearing the entire time in 1912 is about 10 to 15 years out of style). Richard begins to show his true love how wonderful the suit is on account of its many pockets. He is alarmed when he reaches into one and finds a shiny modern Lincoln penny with the mint date of 1979. This modern item breaks his hypnotic suggestion, and Richard feels himself rushing backwards from 1912 as though through a tunnel, and Elise screams his name in horror as he is pulled inexorably back to the present.
Richard wakes up in the same room he just left, although now it is 68 years later. He is very weak and physically and emotionally exhausted from his trip through time and from the devastating unexpected return. He scrambles desperately back to his own suite and attempts to hypnotize himself again, without success. After wandering around the hotel property and sitting interminably at the places where he spent time with Elise, Richard eventually retires to his room and remains there unmoving for days until discovered by Arthur and the hotel manager; they send for a doctor and paramedics. Richard suddenly smiles and sees himself drifting above his body and is drawn to a light shining through the nearby window, where he is reunited forever with Elise.
