Elle (Dominique Sanda) steps off the balcony of her Parisian apartment, plunging to her death. Why has she done it? As her pawnbroker husband, Luc (Guy Frangin), looks over her dead body, director Robert Bresson's eerie, elegant picture traces their lives together in flashback. Elle is the "Gentle Creature" -- meek, dreamy and thoughtful. She entrances Luc, who pursues her passionately. They marry, but the match never seems right, and things turn sour, grimly heading toward an inevitable end.