Albin, a solitary French journalist who knows little of women or of the world, rents a house in a village outside Munich that is home to the respected and rich writer Andreas. In the shop he meets Hélène, a beautiful Frenchwoman who is married to Andreas. She and her husband befriend their new neighbour, who becomes besotted with Hélène. When she tactfully fobs him off, he reasons that she already has a lover and follows her. His hunch proves right when at the Oktoberfest he sees her with another man and later, trailing the two, he takes compromising photographs. Confronting Hélène with the photographs, she tells him that Andreas knows already and begs him to stop. But he will not stop and takes the photographs to Andreas, who is devastated. When Hélène gets home, Andreas beats and kills her.