 Budapest bar entertainer Zara is a discontented alcoholic who is pursued by many men but lives with novelist Carl Salter. A strange man(Tony)shows up on Salter s estate claiming that Zara is actually Maria, the wife of his close friend Bruno. Maria, Tony claims, had her memory destroyed during a World War I invasion 10 years ago. Zara doesn t remember but leaves with Tony to Salter s dismay. Bruno, now an officer in the Italian army, tries to coax Maria s memory back on his large estate. No one is really sure if Zara is Maria, and when Salter shows up with a mental case that he claims is the real Maria, everyone on Bruno s estate is desperately searching for the truth.