A marriage crisis between a writer and his wife leads her to flee to Germany and eventually return with another man, through whom the writer is going to overcome his writer's block.
What is real and what is fiction? Faced with writer's block with his novel, Lewis Fielding turns to a movie script about a woman finding herself after his wife Elizabeth returns from Baden Baden. She didn't quite find herself there, but had a brief encounter in an elevator with a German who says he is a poet. Now the German is in England, gets himself invited to tea where he claims he admires Fielding's books. Which one does he like the best? "Tom Jones". Amused at being confused with the other Fielding, the novelist works the German into the plot.—Dale O'Connor <[email protected]>
Even as Lewis (Micheal Caine), catches his wife Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson), and his assistant Thomas (Helmut Berger), making love in the greenhouse adjacent to his mountainside expatriate estate in the south of France, he just seems bored and lifeless.
Elizabeth and Thomas flee to the seaside with just the clothes on their backs. Thomas, is angered at Elizabeth for not taking enough money with her, and finds a new female beneficiary. While back at the palatial estate, Lewis finds out about Thomas' sordid playboy past (this should surprise no one by this point in the film), and heads down the mountain to save his wife from heartbreak and ruin.
Clearly Elizabeth has had some influence on Thomas, as he seems to be falling in love. He uses his money to take care of Elizabeth.
As Lewis travels to the sea, a mysterious stranger in a white Mercedes follows his black Rolls down the mountain. Lewis confronts his tail and discovers they are both looking for the same man.
Lewis reaches his destination, along with the tail and both confront Thomas with Elizabeth looking on, and in an act of selflessness Thomas confronts his foe, and supplies Elizabeth with some papers or some such thing that would appear to be the keys to securing Elizabeth's future, rather than fleeing and saving himself.
The camera closes up on Lewis with a tortured look, fade out.
