In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face, Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in a department store. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl. Despite the prohibition of kissing, the two become close, raising the suspicions of a jealous colleague.

Nicolas Wolf, an Austrian who's just inherited his grandmother's Parisian flat, is shaken with fear as an unexpected nightly visitor refuses to leave. But no-one but Nicolas seems to be able to see the menacing stranger.