Set in Paris, France, in 1940 in the early days of World War II before the German invasion and conquest of France, Elena Martin is a young American writer struggling to get by in Paris while searching for inspiration for her first novel. Elena meets and has a sordid affair with a fellow American expatriate named Lawrence Walters. With some encouragement from her friends, her lover, and her publisher, Elena gets involved in nude modeling and progresses onward through many other forms of voyeuristic and participatory sexual adventures as she further researches for inspiration to write her book and become an author of erotic fiction.
The short story collection by Anaïs Nin on which the film is based is not autobiographical, nor does it have a frame narrative. The film imposes a frame-narrative about a "Nin-like" American who begins an affair with another expatriate American in pre–World War IIParis, and who writes erotic stories that represent her fantasies. Some of these stories/fantasies, based on those of Nin, are explored on-screen.
