THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS

As World War II ends in Europe, Stars and Stripes journalist Charles Wills takes to the streets of Paris to cover the celebrations. He is suddenly grabbed by a beautiful woman who kisses him and disappears. Charles follows the crowd to Café Dhingo and meets another pretty woman named Marion Ellswirth. She invites him to join her father's celebration of the end of the war. Charles, Marion and her French suitor Claude Matine arrive at the Ellswirth household, where Charles discovers that the woman who had kissed him is Marion's younger sister Helen.

Marion and Helen's father James had survived World War I and promptly joined the Lost Generation and raised his daughters to desire a similar lifestyle. Helen uses her beauty to sustain a life of luxury, even though they are broke. Marion looks for serious-minded and conventional young men such as Claude Matine, an aspiring prosecutor, and Charles, the future novelist.

Charles and Helen start dating and fall in love. After Helen recovers from pneumonia, they marry and settle in Paris. Helen gives birth to a daughter named Vicki. Marion, having lost Charles to Helen, marries Claude. Charles struggles to make ends meet with his meager salary, unsuccessfully works on his novels and looks after Vicki.

The barren oil fields in Texas that James had bought years before begin to produce. Charles, to whom James had given the oil fields as a dowry, quits his job, and Helen and James begin to host parties. Sudden wealth changes Helen, who becomes more responsible, and Charles parties his wealth away after quitting his newspaper job and having all of his novels rejected by publishers. They also each start to grow apart with them both having affairs.

Helen flirts with handsome tennis player Paul Lane and Charles competes in a Monte Carlo-to-Paris race. After the race, Charles returns to Paris to find Helen in Café Dhingo with Paul. After the men fight, Charles returns home and engages the chain on the door. When Helen comes home and cannot enter, she walks to her sister's home in the snow and rain, catches pneumonia again and dies.

Marion is awarded full custody of Vicki and Charles returns home to America. A few years later, having published a book and stopped drinking excessively, Charles returns to Paris to persuade Marion to give Vicki to him. Marion refuses, still resentful because he had fallen for Helen instead of her and for his involvement in Helen's death. Claude tells Marion that she is punishing Charles for not realizing that Marion loved him and marrying Helen.

Marion visits Café Dhingo, where Charles is gazing at a large painting of Helen. Marion tells him that Helen would not have wanted him to be alone. Outside the cafe, Claude is with Vicki, who runs to be with Charles.

Helen dies after contracting pneumonia, Marion gains custody of Vickie, and Charles returns years later hoping to reclaim his daughter as a changed man.

The ending underscores the disastrous consequences of self-destruction and irresponsibility, as Charles's choices result in deep personal loss. The resolution is tinged with regret and longing, emphasizing the fragility of relationships and the irreversible toll of missed chances. The film closes on the bittersweet possibility of redemption but makes clear the heavy price of past actions.