In Southern France, a mysterious assassin shoots one man, then another. A wandering young American adventurer, Bowman, David Birney, meets a pretty young British photographer, Lila, Charlotte Rampling when she hitches a ride, and the two soon cross paths with danger as they help a stranded couple. Their roadside encounter with danger pulls them into a web of intrigue as they reach a town that feels both glamorous and perilous.
In town, they are swept up by a charming French Duc de Croyter, Michael Lonsdale, who invites them to dinner and spins a tale of opportunity. Bowman reveals that the duke had already met him in Paris, offering a job for $3,000 and a return ticket to New York, though the purpose remains a mystery. Bowman ends up driving a car lent by the duke, and that night a break‑in at their lodging ends with Bowman fending off an intruder, steady and unflinching under pressure.
The Duchesse whispers of a mission, and the Duc secretly hires Bowman to smuggle Zuger, the Hungarian scientist, Michael Bryant out of France to the United States. Bowman is reluctant, sensing that this assignment could entangle him in dangerous schemes, yet the duke warns that refusal could mean the car will be reported stolen. The scientist’s backstory adds another layer of tension: he escaped the Iron Curtain by hiding with a caravan of gypsies, but a ruthless gang closes in, intent on profiting from him by selling him to the highest bidder.
A mysterious woman who aids Bowman is murdered at a bull fight, and the revelation shocks him when she is identified as the Duc’s daughter, Stella, Françoise Brion. The tragedy deepens the stakes and adds a personal cost to the high‑stakes chase that follows: Lila and the scientist are kidnapped, and Bowman races to rescue them. The shared peril forges a bond between Bowman and Lila, and soon their connection grows into something more intimate as they navigate the peril together.
The danger escalates as Bowman drives the scientist to safety with a helicopter fleet hot on their tail. A dramatic chase ends with the car driven off the road, and it appears the scientist has fallen into quicksand. A rope drops from the helicopter to retrieve him, but the twist reveals that the man being pulled up is actually Bowman in disguise. He overpowers one of the helicopter crew, only to be dropped into a bull ring. In an explosive sequence, Bowman defeats a bull fighter and narrowly survives when the Duc shoots the charging bull dead.
In the end, the Duc bids farewell to Bowman, Lila, and the scientist at the airport, drawing a line under the perilous mission and leaving them to begin anew, each carrying the weight of the harrowing journey they survived together.
