| Director | Gene Saks |
|---|---|
| Budget | $3 million |
| Box office | $25.8 million |
in Cactus Flower]] Twentyish Toni Simmons attempts suicide by gas from her stove, but her neighbor, Igor Sullivan, smells the gas and rescues her by using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which changes into kissing after Toni regains consciousness. Toni and Igor develop a friendship, with Igor patiently listening to Toni's romantic disappointments while pointing out reality.
Toni's suicide attempt came after being stood up by her lover, middle-aged Manhattan dentist Julian Winston. Wishing to avoid entanglement, Julian had told Toni, untruthfully, that he had a wife and three children. After learning that Toni had been willing to die over him, Julian tells her that he wants to marry her, saying that his wife is eager to divorce him. Concerned over his wife's well-being, however, Toni insists on meeting her to ensure she has agreed to the divorce. Julian asks Stephanie Dickinson, his nurse, to pose as his wife. Stephanie initially refuses but relents because she has long been in love with her employer.
While on an outing with her two nephews, Stephanie stops by the record store where Toni works to tell Toni that she is Julian's wife and agrees to the divorce. Mistaking Stephanie's nephews for Julian's children, and sensing Stephanie's feelings for Julian, Toni is guilt-ridden, expressing qualms to Julian about breaking up their home. Again, Julian lies, telling Toni his wife wants to leave him for her boyfriend. Toni immediately insists on meeting him, and Julian enlists his friend, Harvey, to pose as Stephanie's boyfriend, promising free dental work for Harvey's girlfriend. Julian stages a "coincidental" encounter with Stephanie and Harvey at a club; however, Harvey's real girlfriend turns up, complicating matters, making Toni believe that Stephanie is in the hands of a womanizer. Toni insists that Julian escort his wife home. Hoping to alleviate Toni's qualms, Julian sends Toni an expensive (but irregular) mink stole, which Toni derides to Igor as outdated; following an impulse, Toni sends the mink to Stephanie with Julian's original note (that does not refer to Toni by name) still attached, which lifts Stephanie's spirits.
Embracing newfound confidence, Stephanie accepts the overtures of Julian's patient, Señor Arturo Sánchez, a Latin diplomat in the United Nations. After attending a ball with him in a new evening gown and the mink stole, she invites Sánchez to the club from the previous night, where Toni, Julian, and Igor have also returned. Stephanie and Igor quickly hit it off, to the dismay and jealousy of Julian and Toni. Finding his car being towed, Julian runs off to the garage to retrieve it, leaving Toni stranded.
Stephanie arrives at work the next morning, giddy, still wearing her gown from the night before. She happily shares a few vague details with Julian about her night spent on the beach with Igor. Symbolically, Stephanie notices that the cactus on her desk has bloomed. Stephanie and Julian get into an argument about the propriety of Stephanie's relationship with a younger Igor and Julian's dishonesty with a much younger Toni, and Stephanie quits. Stephanie visits Toni's apartment to confess to her that she is really Julian's nurse and that he has never been married.
After Stephanie leaves, Julian arrives and tells Toni that his wife now refuses to divorce him, but he and Toni can continue their relationship. Exasperated with his dishonesty, Toni fools Julian into believing that she and Igor have been romantically involved all along; she then realizes that she prefers Igor. Julian storms off to get drunk at a bar that night.
Next morning, Julian encounters Stephanie at the office; she has returned to pick up the cactus from her desk. Julian tells Stephanie that he and Toni have split up; he is relieved that he would not now have to marry Toni and that he could go home to his "wife". Overjoyed, Stephanie embraces him, as Julian confesses that he has fallen in love with her and they kiss.