A wealthy man tries to convince a bored socialite that they had an affair years earlier.

Among the wealthy clientele at a lavish palace-spa are a man, X, a woman, A, and another man, M, who may be her husband or lover. While the other guests indulge in the games of the idle rich, X confronts A and reminds her that they met the previous year at Frederiksbad, or perhaps at Marienbad. Although the woman denies knowing him, X insists that they had an affair, that she suggested they meet this year at this hotel, and that she agreed to consider going away with him. At first the woman takes his story as a joke, but it soon becomes apparent that this is not a game. The other guests (seen only in profile), the silent string quartet, the domino games, and the performance of Ibsen's Rosmersholm lose their importance as the surface reality becomes lost in the private realities of the protagonists. Positive of their last meeting, X persists in his persuasion, filling the woman's mind with images that gradually become real, or seem to become real, to her. Inside the hotel, with its baroque furnishings, formal gardens, and sculpture, X and A go from one point in time to another, changing clothes and locale as X continues to try to convince A that his recollections of last year are true. Ultimately she is forced to overcome her fear and become what the stranger says she is--his lover; unquestioning, she leaves with him.