PETULIA

In San Francisco, Petulia Danner is a young socialite who has been married to David, an architect, for six months. She meets Dr. Archie Bollen, who is divorcing his wife Polo, at a benefit concert for victims of traffic accidents. Petulia has grown romantically attached to Archie when he operated on Oliver, a Mexican boy she adopted. The two go upstairs inside the Hilton Hotel for a one-night stand, but Petulia reconsiders and Archie escorts her to a taxi. The next morning, Petulia impulsively arrives at Archie's apartment with a tuba.

Archie is nonchalant with Petulia and leaves for work. When he returns, Archie finds Petulia outside with the tuba. She boards a bus back home, and Archie unsuccessfully tries to return the tuba. The next day, Polo arrives at Archie's apartment and tells her soon-to-be ex-husband that she is remarrying, which angers him as he considered reconciling. During an afternoon picnic in the park, Archie is with his girlfriend May. Petulia stalks Archie when he arrives at May's apartment, and once more, when she is in his work office. Archie gives into Petulia's romantic pursuit and they spend the night together when she sleeps at his apartment.

After Archie tours Alcatraz Island with his children, he returns to find Petulia severely beaten. The ambulance arrives and while Petulia is hospitalized, Archie watches a Polaroid slide show of family photos with his coworker Barney and his wife Wilma. As Archie watches a roller derby with Polo and their father, David's father visits Petulia in recovery, and she is admitted out of hospital. Archie arrives at the Danners estate and blames David for assaulting Petulia but David states that he was out of town. His father corroborates his story, and Archie leaves angered when Petulia says nothing.

A year later, Archie reencounters Petulia on an afternoon trip with his son. When he returns to his apartment, he finds it has been retrofitted with an artificial greenhouse. Meanwhile, Petulia and David are on a sailboat cruise, though their marriage remains strained. When they return, Archie finds Petulia in a maternity ward. They reflect on their affair and Archie kisses her goodbye. Petulia is wheeled into the delivery room and calls for Archie.

After a series of emotional entanglements and upheavals, Archie and Petulia share a final goodbye in a maternity ward as she is wheeled away to give birth, calling out for him.

The ending underscores the impossibility of true connection amid personal trauma and social upheaval. Petulia’s longing for Archie, expressed in their poignant farewell, reveals the lingering emotional wounds neither can fully escape. The maternity ward scene echoes the themes of new beginnings and the unresolved pain both characters carry, closing the film on a note of bittersweet separation rather than reconciliation.