Alice (Danielle Darrieux), a widowed Frenchwoman, goes on a vacation to Italy. Upon her return, she relates the particulars of her holiday. Within a 24-hour time frame, Alice gets on the wrong boat, winds up in Switzerland where she whiles away the hours at a casino, meets a handsome young German army deserter named Thomas (Robert Hoffman), spends the night with her new acquaintance, pays his sizeable gambling debts, and helps him elude the authorities. When they part, Thomas promises Alice that he'll give up gambling, but as the 24 hours draw to a close, Alice is heartbroken to discover that she's misjudged the insensitive Thomas. This melancholy fable was based on a short story by Stefan Zweig.