Stephen (Sir Dirk Bogarde) is a married Oxford professor experiencing the pangs of a mid-life crisis as he begins to bristle at the stifling emotional repression of the society in which he lives. Things begin to change for him when he meets Anna von Graz (Jacqueline Sassard), a beautiful student who is engaged to William (Michael York), another of Stephen's students. Though he begins to feel alive again in her presence, Stephen's feelings for Anna can only end in tragedy for them and those around them.—Jean-Marc Rocher