A Czech immigrant in 1960s America escapes into musicals while working long hours in poverty. Struggling with hereditary blindness, she is determined to secure her son’s future and will sacrifice everything to ensure he receives the operation that could spare him from her fate.

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.