Jerry Mulligan is an ex-G.I. and a struggling American painter in Paris. He is 'discovered' by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art. Jerry in turn falls for Lise, a young French girl already engaged to a cabaret singer. Jerry jokes, sings and dances with his best friend, an acerbic would-be concert pianist. Romance between Jerry and Lise becomes complicated.

A married man in his early 40s, Seong-nam is an award-winning painter who, after getting busted for smoking pot with an American exchange student in Seoul, impulsively flees to Paris. Crashing in a dingy hotel run by a fellow Korean and unable to speak a lick of French, he finds himself wandering aimlessly around Paris, trapped in both his art and life. After a chance encounter with an old flame, he eventually stumbles into the emotional lives of...