Having scorned every member of the New York upper class, the seductive Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) travels to Amalfi, Italy, hoping to win over a married aristocrat, Robert Windermere (Mark Umbers). When news of their flirting becomes a scandal, Windermere's innocent wife, Meg (Scarlett Johansson), plots an elaborate revenge, despite her own attraction to the young Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore). At Meg's 20th birthday party, all illicit desires come to the surface.