A literary love triangle is explored in this film, which was the first to earn an NC-17 rating. While traveling in Paris, author Henry Miller (Fred Ward) and his wife, June (Uma Thurman), meet Anais Nin (Maria de Medeiros), and sexual sparks fly as Nin starts an affair with the openly bisexual June. When June is forced to return to the U.S., she gives Nin her blessing to sleep with her husband. Then, when June returns to France, an unexpected, and sometimes contentious, threesome forms.