The story unfolds amidst the extravagant high society of 1820s Paris; the handsome General Armand de Montriveau encounters the beautiful, coquettish, but married, Antoinette de Langeais. Vowing that she will be his lover, Montriveau pursues the alluring Antoinette who, in turn, orchestrates a calculating game of seduction but repeatedly rebuffs his advances. Humiliated, Montriveau seeks revenge just as Antoinette's passion for him awakens and a perverse romantic power struggle ensues.