Jim Hutton and Mary Archer are two liberals who are content to remain faithful to each other in spirit only. They are married with all the ritual of a church wedding, the bride believing that each should be allowed perfect freedom in personal contacts. Among the wedding guests is the young composer Richard Parrish, hardly disguising his admiration for the bride, and Noel Farley, whose passion is exceeded only by the pain of losing Jim to another woman. A child is born to them. When Jim goes off to Europe on a business trip, Mary declines to accompany him. Noel, who owns a villa at Antibes, lures Jim into a rendezvous. Menawhile, Mary has an affair with Richard. Learning of Jim's rendezvous, she considers a Paris divorce so as to marry Richard. When Jim unexpectedly returns, he tells Mary of his affair with a French woman. Mary is devastated, for she would never believe that her husband would actually sleep with another woman. In the end their mutual love is confirmed, and they decide to adopt traditional marriage morals and remain monogamous.
Philip James Quinn Barry was an American playwright, best known for the plays Holiday and The Philadelphia Story, both of which were successfully adapted into movies starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn (as well as James Stewart, in The Philadelphia Story).