The young, friendless daughter of Oliver and Alice Reed befriends her father’s dead first wife and an aging, reclusive actress.

Sketch artist Irena Dubrovna (Simon) and American architect Oliver Reed (Smith) fall in love and marry after a brief courtship. But Irena believes that she suffers from an ancient curse and won’t consummate the union for fear that she will turn into a panther compelled to kill her lover.