Plot summary

Three separate stories of the love lives of the various owners of the same 1939 yellow Rolls-Royce Phantom are told. The original owner, Lord Charles Frinton, Marquess of Frinton (Sir Rex Harrison), buys it as a 10th-wedding anniversary present for his French wife, Lady Eloise Frinton, Marchioness of Frinton (Jeanne Moreau), on the eve of the Ascot Gold Cup, in which he has a horse entered who is expected to win. As Lord Charles focuses on the activities around the race and his diplomatic duties, he's not aware of Lady Eloise's own activities. which might make the anniverary and the gift memorable in the wrong way. Over 2,000 miles (over 3,200 kilometers) later, world-renowned American gangster Paolo Maltese (George C. Scott) buys the Rolls-Royce for his fiancée Mae Jenkins (Shirley MacLaine), in which to travel around Italy. On their travels they meet street photographer Stefano (Alain Delon), who flirts with Mae--harmlessly enough, Paolo believes. Mae calls Stefano amoral for flirting with her, an engaged woman, but she falls for him and he falls in love with her. Paolo is called back to the U.S. to deal with business, Mae and Stefano are able to spend time together, and she wonders if she loves him enough to leave him, since Paolo would never let her go, and his right-hand man Joey Friedlander (Art Carney), who saw what happened between Mae and Stefano, must decide if he will rat them out to Paolo for his own self-preservation. The car, having seen better days, in 1941 comes under the ownership of middle-aged American socialite Gerda Millett (Ingrid Bergman), an overbearing, headstrong woman who always gets her way--or else--and is oblivious to world activities outside of her general sphere. In Trieste she plans to travel to Yugoslavia to meet with the new Prince, Peter, and Yugoslavian national Davich (Omar Sharif) persuades her to give him a ride to his homeland; only when they approach the border does she learn that he is a Yugoslavian revolutionary who, despite her earlier concern, isn't about to kill Prince Peter, but to work to defeat what he and his colleagues know will be the imminent Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia. Beyond the issue of getting Davich over the border without being detected by border control, Mrs. Millett might see first-hand what he's fighting for if they do get across.—Huggo