This drama is one of the films that defined the latter stages of French New Wave cinema. It is the story of a young man's fascination with the suicide of a young Spaniard. It all begins when he overhears a discussion of the deaths. The conversation leaves the protagonist with a burning desire to investigate the death. She then finds herself involved with a theater director and ends up playing a role in his production of Shakespeare's . As they become more involved, the actress is consumed with fear that the theater director is a target for the same conspirational organization she believes killed the Spaniard. She got this notion from an American who had recently been victimized by McCarthyism. The woman is so sure that a true conspiracy is afoot that soon her lover becomes equally paranoid and commits suicide. It is then that the American confesses to having made the whole story up.