In a resort town near Rome, Louise (Jacqueline Bisset) attempts to cope with her divorce, a new career, and John (Maximilian Schell), a boyfriend who is not much of an improvement on the husband she left behind. She has a demanding son, a demanding career, a demanding lover, and makes some impossible demands on herself. She gets together with a couple of girlfriends, including one who has just had a liaison with her boyfriend John, and decides that women haven't made nearly as much progress as they might have thought. Louise has also been having an affair with Henry (Terence Stamp), but isn't getting much joy from that relationship either.