On a lovely afternoon in Paris, an engaged American couple named Inez and Gil shares
a meal together in a fancy restaurant. There, they run into Paul and his wife,
Carol, who are both long-time friends of Inez. After exchanging pleasantries,
Carol and Paul invite Inez and Gil to come along with them to visit Versailles the next day,
a city located on the outskirts of Paris. Gil, who isn't fond of Inez's friends, tries to
come up with an excuse to avoid going, but Inez shuns him and accepts the friendly offer.
The next day, the two couples tour the city, while simultaneously catching up
on their individual projects. Inez narrates to her friends how Gil is working on a novel,
whose plot centers around the life of a nostalgia shop employee. Paul isn't exactly thrilled
with the novel's idea and offers some unkind criticism, while Gil paces in awkward silence.
After their Versailles tour, the group returns to Paris for a wine tasting event later that night,
which leaves all of them drunk. When the event ends, the rest of the group makes their way to
a dance party, while tired Gil retires for the night and heads in the direction of his hotel.
However, Gil doesn't manage to get far when he gets lost and stranded in an alleyway,
right at the stroke of midnight. While sitting and trying to devise a plan to relocate his
bearing in the foreign city, a group of French party-goers pull up in a historic-looking car
and invite him to join them. Gil is utterly confused by the strangers but enters the
car regardless— Wow! It seems like Gil isn't scared of getting kidnapped.
The group takes a ride around town and soon arrives at their destination— a ballroom party
whose attendees are all dressed in formal 1920s attire. Gill immediately separates from the group
and runs into an attractive couple, who introduce themselves as Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.
Gil finds this to be a strange coincidence as their names and appearances match those of his
literary idols, who lived in the early nineteen hundreds. He instantly hits it off with them,
and the trio soon leaves the ball and makes their way around town, partying and enjoying each
other's company. As the night progresses, Gil soon realizes that Zelda and Scott are not namesakes of
his role models, like he initially thought, but are actually his real-life idols from the past.
Hence, Gil deduces that he has somehow been transported back in time to the 1920s.
Ultimately, the trio enters a cafe where Scott introduces Gil to Ernest Hemingway,
who is a famed 20th-century novelist. Gil is immediately enthralled by Hemingway as the two
engage in dialogue over art and literature. As the two men converse, Paul tells Hemingway
that he is also a novelist and would like him to read and review the current novel
he's working on. However, Hemingway refuses his request but offers to get his friend,
Gertrude Stein, who is also a talented author, to critique it instead.
Paul is ecstatic at hearing this and immediately expresses his gratitude,
as he leaves the cafe for the hotel to get his manuscript. However, he barely makes it past
one block when he heads back to the cafe to ask Hemingway a question. But on reaching there, he
is astonished to find the entire cafe, alongside all its occupants, has mysteriously vanished.
The next morning, Gil wakes up in his hotel room and recounts a summary of his crazy night to Inez.
Understandably, she finds his story, ridiculous, and blames it on the alcohol he had last night,
but Gil remains adamant that it wasn't a hallucination.
Later that night, Gil, who brings along his manuscript, takes Inez to the same flight of
stairs he sat on last night, hoping that the car would drop by again to pick them up. The
couple patiently waits for over an hour with no sign of the 'time-traveling car' in sight.
Five minutes to midnight, Inez, tired of waiting, takes a cab and retires for the night while Gil
stays behind, sustaining hope that the car would eventually arrive. Right at the stroke
of midnight, he hears the sound of a vehicle approaching from down the street. He looks
toward the source of the sound and is overjoyed to see the car parked right in front of him.
He opens the car door to see Hemingway waiting for him inside. Gil quickly enters the car,
joining him in the back seat as the duo drives away. Eventually, they get dropped
off at an ornate apartment, where Hemingway introduces Gil to his friend, Gertrude Stein,
who is in the process of critiquing Picasso's painting of his mistress, Adriana.
When she's done making some final comments on the portrait,
the middle-aged woman asks for Gil's manuscript, which he hands over in a heartbeat. She reads a
few lines off it before placing it on her desk, promising to complete it in a few days.
Gil expresses his gratitude. Afterwhich, he wanders off to the next room, where he meets
Adriana. He is fascinated by her beauty and the two spark up an exciting conversation,
where they share their mutual love for the arts and past times.
At the end of the night, Gil, alongside the rest of the group, leaves Miss Stein's house
but not before promising to return in a few days to hear her review of his work.
The following morning, Gil and Inez go to the museum to meet with Paul and Carol. There,
Paul, who is an overbearing know-it-all, wows the ladies with his knowledge of
historic art while touring the museum. Soon, the group reaches a Picasso painting,
which happens to be the same one that Gil saw over at Miss Stein's. When Paul gives
inaccurate information about the ancient portrait, Gil takes the opportunity to put him in his place,
as he gives a detailed explanation of the painting, much to the group's surprise.
Later that night, Gil once again takes a trip to the past. This time, he finds himself at a party,
where he meets Adriana in the company of the Fitzgeralds. After exchanging pleasantries
with the group, he immediately hits it off with Adriana, and the duo ultimately leaves
the party to take a stroll around the city. While strolling, they spot suicidal Zelda who is
about to jump into a nearby lake. They instantly sprint and stop her, while she struggles to free
herself from their grip. The concerned duo asks why she wants to take her life, prompting Zelda
to explain that Scott had fallen in love with another woman— an attractive countess,
who he talked with, the entire night. Gil repeatedly assures her that Scott hasn't
fallen out of love with her, and offers the hysteric Zelda, a pill to help with her panic
attack. When she calms down, Gil and Adriana resume their stroll and end up having drinks at
a bar. There, Gil informs her about his fiancé, Inez. Adriana is surprised to learn that he's
engaged but tries her best to hide it, as she excuses herself and retires for the night.
The next day, Gil wakes up and tries to get Inez to spend some quality time with him,
but she dismisses him, citing that she has to meet Paul, who invited her to
see the countryside later that day. At midnight, Gil goes to the regular spot
and enters the time-traveling car as usual. Afterwhich, the automobile drops him off at
Stein's, who had finished reading his book the night before. When he asks for some feedback,
she makes some helpful observations, giving him clear pointers on how to improve the novel.
The following afternoon, Gil finds Adriana's diary displayed for sale at a local book stand. He buys
it and opens the book to read but can't seem to understand the words as it is written in French.
Luckily, he finds a young French woman who helps him translate a part of the diary,
while he listens attentively. From it, he learns that Adriana
had fallen in love with him despite their short time together. In her diary, she also recounts
a dream she previously had, where Gil showed up to meet her with a pair of earrings as a gift.
Wanting to make her dream a reality, and with very little time left till midnight, Gil steals
Inez's pearl earrings and wraps it up in a box for Adriana. However, as he opens his hotel
door to leave for his usual spot, he sees Inez alongside her parents right in front of him.
The trio, who was supposed to be out all night at a dinner party, came back prematurely due to
Inez's dad's slight but sudden illness. Gil, caught by surprise at their abrupt arrival,
has no choice but to cancel his plans for the night and postpone his visit for the next day.
The following morning, he heads to the city market and buys a proper pair of earrings for Adriana,
and goes to give it to her later that night. He drops by Stein's apartment and hands her the
first few chapters of his manuscript, which he had rewritten in line with her previous critiques.
She accepts it, promising to read and tell him what she thinks of it later,
which he thanks her for. Not seeing Adriana there, Gil asks Stein about her whereabouts.
She informs him that Adriana is no longer seeing Picasso and is over at Deyrolle,
attending a painter's wedding party. Hearing this, Gil makes his way there
and finds her smoking alone in a corner. After sparking a conversation, the duo leaves
the party and walks around some lonely streets for a while, before stopping and sharing a kiss.
After this, the couple sits on a bench to discuss their feelings for each other.
Gil expresses his confusion over his conflicting engagement with Inez, and his newfound emotions
for Adriana. Later on, he offers her the earrings which he got earlier that day.
She accepts them with a bright smile, thanking him for the kind gesture as she puts them on.
Just then, a carriage arrives, with the occupants beckoning the couple to join them.
Adriana and Gil are at first confused by this, but enter the carriage regardless.
Like the car, the carriage transports them to an earlier era termed "The Belle Epoque,"
which is a period in the 18 hundreds. Adriana is fascinated by the era,
instantly falls in love with it, and even regards it as "The Golden Age." There,
the couple meets Lautrec, a famous painter, amongst other talented artists. After conversing
with them for a while, Gil discovers that they regard the Renaissance as 'The Golden Age.'
Suddenly, Gil realizes that regardless of the era, people always regard the past as
better than the present. Learning this, he decides to return to the present for good,
while Adriana chooses to remain in the Belle Epoque era.
Gil goes back to Miss Stein to get his manuscript. There, she commends him on adhering to her advice,
stating that she's impressed with his work as she hands the script back to him.
On returning home the next morning, Gil accuses Inez of cheating on him with Paul. She relentless
denials his claims at first but eventually admits it, dismissing it as nothing but a fling.
However, Gil tells her that he'd like to move to Paris permanently, and breaks up with her on the
spot. Later that night, he runs into Gabrielle, an antique shop owner and a fellow lover of the
ancient times, who he had met a few days prior. The duo share a moment, showing signs of a budding
romance as they head down the street admiring Paris under the pouring rain in the end.