Alan, after quarreling with his girlfriend Sheila, becomes intrigued by Anna, a mysterious widow who's searching for a sailor she had known many years before. Alan and Anna begin the search on board a yacht bound for Greece, but they don't find the sailor. After a stop in Africa, Louis de Mozambique joins the party and suggests that the sailor may never have existed other than in Anna's mind.

Part One, "The Last Christmas Dinner," is about the relationship between an old man and an old woman, both homeless. Part Two, "The Electric Floor Polisher," is an opera-like story of a woman who is obsessed with polishing her floors. Part Three is a musical interlude featuring Jeanne Moreau singing "When Love Dies." Part Four, "The Virtue of Tolerance," concerns an old man, his young wife, and how they come to terms when she has an affair with a man her own age.