Secluded beach on the Connecticut coast near the fictional city of Greenwood. Jerry Conant and Sally Matias meet there secretly. Each of them has their own families, children, but they are irresistibly attracted to each other. Again and again they are talking about finding the strength in themselves to break with conventions and take the last step towards each other, but each of them is not easy to decide on a divorce.
Jerry is leaving for Washington on business; Sally asks for permission to go with him. Jerry hesitates: after all, such a joint trip miraculously did not lead to a major scandal. Finally, he refuses: they are constantly at risk of being taken to clean water. But Sally is unable to remain without him, and she still appears in Washington.
And this meeting, like many others, is not without alarm. Sally soon needs to be back, and there are big problems with plane tickets: a strike by one of the airlines led to serious disruptions to airports and the cancellation of many flights. Frantic attempts to get tickets for the return flight greatly poison those few hours that lovers have found for themselves. However, Sally's very late arrival gets away with her. Husband Richard did not suspect anything. Jerry Ruth didn’t smell something wrong either.
However, Richard and Ruth in this respect are not without sin. At one time, a relationship arose between them, which, however, was soon decisively discontinued by Ruth, and the point was not that she had concerns that Jerry was beginning to guess. By nature, Ruth is simply created for the home and does everything to be a good mother and wife. That troubling day in Washington, however, was a turning point in the fate of two families. Soon after returning to Greenwood, Jerry tells Ruth that he is having an affair with Sally, and raises the topic of divorce. This marks the beginning of a long and painful showdown between spouses. At the same time, Ruth confesses to Jerry that she had an affair at one time, but refuses to tell with whom exactly. Ruth offers Jerry to postpone the decision until the end of the summer - during this time he should stop meeting with Sally and once again test his feelings for her - and Ruth too.
Ruth meets Sally, and they also discuss the issue. Sally admits that after she appeared in her life, Jerry literally hated her husband and now he simply ceased to exist for her. She says that it was only thanks to Jerry that she knew what love was, and that if Ruth tried to forcibly keep her husband, she would simply strangle him. Ruth assures her that she would not interfere with great love, since she really arose between her husband and another woman, but they have three children and she has no right to not think about their well-being. She asks Sally to stop seeing Jerry until September, but if even then it turns out that their attraction to each other has not weakened, she will not interfere with their union.
Sally and Jerry agree to the request of Ruth, but the latter soon suspects that they still did not end the relationship. Once, having discovered that Jerry’s work phone and Sally’s home were busy for a long time, she got into the car and went to work with Richard to discuss the situation with him. But the nervous tension makes itself felt, and her car crashes. The police do not want to let her go home alone - she is in a half-shock state, and then Ruth calls Richard and asks to come. He appears quickly, and she is already on the verge of confessing everything to him, but she takes herself in time in time.
Sally leaves with her children for Florida, but from time to time Jerry calls on the phone, cries and says that she can’t do this anymore. Jerry tells his wife that he decided to leave home and wait for Sally to return somewhere else, maybe in Washington. The conversation takes on a rather stormy character, and then the alarmed son of Charlie appears. He cries bitterly, realizing that dad "wants to live with other children." Confused Jerry consoles him, explaining that he wants to live only with him.
The decision to stay seems to have been made, but Jerry soon realizes that he cannot stay away from his beloved. But instead of finally making an independent decision and committing an act, he resumes negotiations with Ruth, which are extremely difficult for both. He aspires with all his heart to Sally, but on the other hand, he is not able to leave children at the mercy of fate. He rushes between two possible solutions, as if hoping that someone will make a choice for him. When once again he is inclined to leave the house, Ruth informs him that he is most likely pregnant. She says she will have an abortion, but Jerry feels like a killer.
Soon, Richard also joined the divorce problem. Sally broke down and told him about Jerry. Richard immediately takes the bull by the horns and begins to enthusiastically discuss the details of the future structure of life for all concerned. He enters into negotiations with a lawyer, eagerly preparing for a new existence. But Jerry’s painful duality, rushing between passion and habit, desire and duty, does not allow him to take the same step that he had dreamed about throughout the whole story. The status quo is restored, and love for Sally remains in the hero’s memories and fragments of their dialogues - real and existing exclusively in his imagination. Returning his thoughts to a woman who means so much to him and at the same time remains on the horizon of his existence, he thinks again and again that there will come a time when they will meet at some party and he will say, looking into her sad eyes: "Let's get married."
