private lives, synopsis

A hotel in France.

Elyot Chase is newly married and on honeymoon in France. His ex-wife Amanda is also newly married, on honeymoon and unbeknown to them both in the hotel suite next door.

Taking the air on their respective balconies they are shocked to discover each other. Elyot tells his new wife Sibyl that they must leave at once but won’t tell her why. She refuses.

Amanda tells her husband Victor that they must leave at once but won’t tell him why. He refuses. She tells him she has seen Elyot but he doesn’t believe her and they argue.

Elyot and Amanda chat alone on their balconies, discover they are still in love and are soon planning to run away together. After they have left, Victor and Sibyl meet on their separate balconies and start chatting.

An apartment in Paris.

Elyot and Amanda have just finished their evening meal. They talk about their hasty escape from their respective honeymoons and why their relationship failed the first time. It becomes obvious that they split up because they continually argued and the arguing soon starts again. At the height of their argument Victor and Sibyl enter the room.

The same apartment the following morning.

Victor and Sibyl have stayed over night in the flat. They are awake first. Having seen their respective spouses fighting with each other the night before they congratulate themselves on a lucky escape. Amanda and Elyot get up and continue their argument. They talk to Victor and Sibyl about divorce. Victor and Sibyl have been getting on well but soon they too start to argue. As their argument intensifies Amanda and Elyot, feuds forgotten, leave them to it.