Narrative Structure (Detailed Plot)
Setting: Aboard a Liner
One December, French painter and famed womanizer Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) meets American singer Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) aboard a liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
They are both already engaged, he to heiress Lois Clarke (Astrid Allwyn), she to Kenneth Bradley (Lee Bowman).
They begin to flirt and to dine together on the ship, but his worldwide reputation makes them conscious that others are watching.
Eventually, they decide that they should dine separately and not associate with each other.
Stop at Madeira
They visit Michel’s grandmother Janou (Maria Ouspenskaya), who bonds with Terry and admits wanting Michel to settle down.
As the ship is ready to disembark at New York City, the two make an appointment to meet in the new year, six months later on top of the Empire State Building.
It gives Michel enough time to decide whether he can start making enough money to support a relationship with Terry.
His paintings fail to sell so he finds work designing advertising billboards around the city.
Meanwhile, Terry successfully negotiates a contract with a Philadelphian nightclub to perform through to June.
When the rendezvous date arrives, they both head to the Empire State Building.
However, Terry is struck by a car on a nearby road.
She is told by doctors that she may be paralyzed for the rest of her life, though that will not be known for certain for six months.
Not wanting to be a burden to Michel, she does not contact him, preferring to let him think the worst.
Meanwhile, Michel waited until closing time.
Michel travels to Madeira to discover that his grandmother has recently died.
He continues working in New York City.
Terry is overheard singing in the garden of her physiotherapy by the owner of a children’s orphanage, and he hires her as a music teacher.
Six months later.
During Terry’s first outing since the accident, she and Michel meet by accident at a theater on Christmas Eve, though Terry manages to conceal her disability.
The next morning on Christmas Day, after the children visit Terry at her apartment, Michel makes a surprise visit.
He finally learns the truth about Terry’s condition.
Terry, delighted Michel proved he had changed his ways despite circumstances, tells him it is her turn to prove she could change hers.
But Michel assures her that they will be together no matter what the diagnosis may be.
