This film follows a pair of earrings as they change hands during a series of betrayals and romances. A French general (Charles Boyer) presents his wife with the pricey jewelry, but she is forced to sell the earrings after she runs into financial trouble. When the general sees them in a shop, he secretly purchases them back for a woman he is having an affair with. Then, after a gambling loss, she pawns them, and an Italian aristocrat (Vittorio De Sica) buys them for a special Frenchwoman.