Two Oxford students, William (Michael York) and Anna (Jacqueline Sassard), crash their car outside their professor Stephen's (Dirk Bogarde) house. The lecturer finds William dead and Anna in shock, and the horrifying spectacle in front of him triggers memories of their previous meetings. It transpires that Anna had been having an affair with one of the professor's colleagues, and, in a flashback to a Sunday dinner party, it is revealed what part Stephen had to play in the fall-out from the relationship. Harold Pinter provides the script for Joseph Losey's examination of emotional tumult amongst the dreaming spires.