When wealthy tobacco plantation owner, Louis (Jean-Paul Belmondo) meets his new mail-order bride Julie (Catherine Deneuve) at the Reunion Island shipyard, he is smitten by her beauty and overlooks her many mysterious habits. After they wed, he comes to realize that she is not the woman he corresponded with at all and she soon disappears with his entire bank account. His heartbreak and her cold betrayals drive him to track Julie down to France. She admits her real name- Marion- and that she had a male accomplice aboard ship who killed the actual Julie, but he had double-crossed Marion and ran with the money. Full of remorse, she asks him to kill her to end her sordid life. Louis cannot resist her candid confession and becomes both her accomplice and protector - even finding himself compelled to murder, to keep her from prison. He finally faces a test at Marion's hands that convinces her she is worthy of his love.