Janice McKenzie is persuaded by her terminally ill husband to take one day a week off from her bedside vigil in Marin County. On the first day in San Francisco, she begins to cry on the ferry and, disembarking, catches a heel and finds herself in the arms of a young man, Brian Loomis, who takes her home and to bed. At first, Janice is horrified at what she has done, but as time passes and Brian pursues her, she finds herself more and more comfortable in his company. Janice's memories of her childhood and her marriage take on new meaning, as she contrasts them with her impressions of Brian. She develops new insight as to how she came to be the perfection-obsessed woman that she is.

Brian is living temporarily with an older gay man, Robert Tyler--who, unknown to Brian, is a serial killer of the rich older women who are his home-decoration clients. Robert learns Janice's identity and rightly guesses that she and Brian are lovers. Convinced that, in time, Brian will become his lover, Robert begins to stalk Janice, determined to kill her. He stands on the deck outside her bedroom at night, plotting of how he will do it.

As the friendship between Janice and Brian metamorphoses into an affair, Brian determinedly awakens the passionate woman hidden beneath Janice's cool exterior. Despite their affair, however, Janice feels more deeply in love with her husband than ever. As his condition worsens, she finds herself regretting all that she has deprived him of, in their marriage.

When she realizes that she has fallen in love with Brian, Janice tries to break off their relationship, determined that she will not leave Douglas, nor allow him to become an impediment to their happiness. However, she finds that she cannot make the break. She and Brian determine that they will see each other when they can.

When Douglas dies, Robert makes his move. His plan to kill both Janice and Brian not only fails to turn out as he expected, it also produces a surprising and poignant twist to this unconventional tale of a tender but sizzling love affair between two likeable, honest, passionate people.