Harry Ricks is a man who has lost everything. A romantic mistake at the small American college where he used to teach has cost him his job, his marriage and his relationship with his only child. And when the ensuing scandal threatens to destroy him, he flees to Paris where he ends up in a grubby room in a grubby quarter, with a job as a night-watchman for a sinister operation. But just when Harry thinks he has hit rock bottom, romance enters his life. Harry is soon smitten with Margit, but she will only see him at her apartment in the fifth arrondissement for a few hours a week. However, Harrys frustrations with Margit's reticence are soon overshadowed as he finds himself of increasing interest to the police and waking up in a nightmare from which there is no easy escape.