| Director | Adrian Lyne |
|---|---|
| Budget | $50 million |
| Box office | $119.1 million |
Constance "Connie" and Edward Sumner have a generally happy marriage together and live in upscale Westchester County, New York with their eight year old son, Charlie.
While shopping in SoHo, the wind knocks Connie into a young, handsome Frenchman named Paul Martel and they fall over. Paul then invites Connie into his apartment, where he cleans and ices her knee and then places his hand on hers. Paul insists that Connie takes a book before she leaves, addressing a passage about seizing the moment. When Connie returns home and opens the book, she discovers Paul's phone number inside of it.
Connie later calls Paul and he invites her back to his home; they flirt again and on her third visit, they dance and have sex.
Soon, Connie keeps on finding excuses to continue seeing Paul and Edward becomes suspicious when he notices her satin lingerie and catches her in a lie. Later on, Edward fires an employee for perceived disloyalty, and the employee, who witnessed Connie and Paul kissing in a diner, tells him to look at his own family. This inspires Edward to hire a private investigator to spy on Connie and he's devastated to see photos confirming her adultery.
One day, Connie forgets to collect Charlie from school, realises her wrongdoing and attempts to call Paul to end their affair. With the phone call being unanswered, she tries leaving him a voicemail but is interrupted by Charlie. She then drives to Paul's home to end their affair in person, but instead spots him with another woman. After attacking Paul in a library, she angrily confronts and questions him about how many other women he's seeing. Paul claims the other woman is just a friend and nothing more, but Connie doesn't buy it and tells him that their affair is officially over. She then storms out of Paul's apartment, but he catches up with her and forces himself upon her. Eventually, Connie succumbs to Paul and they have makeup sex in the hallway.
Afterwards, Edward arrives, narrowly missing Connie who was just leaving. Paul lets Edward into his apartment, and while the pair discuss about Connie, Edward discovers Paul's messy bedsheets and a snow globe that he gifted her on his shelf. Overcome with rage, he brutally hits Paul twice over his head with it, fracturing his skull and killing him. While Edward cleans up the evidence, he overhears Connie's tearful voicemail ending her affair with Paul, erases it, and puts the body in the trunk of his car before dumping it in a landfill.
The next day, New York Police Department detectives find Connie's number in Paul's home and visit the Sumners after his estranged wife has reported him missing. Connie is surprised to learn that Paul was married but falsely claims that she barely knew him. The NYPD return when they found his body and question Connie again, and after they leave, she breaks down crying.
At the dry cleaner, Connie discovers the photos of her and Paul in Edward's laundry, and at a party that night, she discovers her snow globe back in their collection. When she confronts Edward, he responds by telling her that he knew about her infidelity from day one and then breaks down while telling her how hard he worked to give her and Charlie a better life, accuses her of being ungrateful and throwing away a hardworking husband and a happy family for an affair, before telling her that he hates her and that he wanted to kill her instead of Paul.
Days later, Connie discovers a hidden compartment in the snow globe, where years prior, Edward placed a photograph of them and an infant Charlie, with a message reading: ″To My Beautiful Wife, The Best Part Of Every Day!″. Realising how much he loved her, she burns the incriminating photos of her and Paul. Edward says that he will turn himself in, but Connie objects and they return to a normal life together.
Returning home one evening, Edward stops at a red traffic light. Connie falls into an escape fantasy that they could leave the country to adopt new identities, as Edward agrees. While he consoles her as she cries, it is shown that they have parked near a police station.