Plot
During a busy morning in central London, writer Dan Woolf meets a beautiful American woman after she is hit by a car. She tried to cross and was not used to the direction of traffic in England. On their walk back from the hospital, they stop by Postman's Park. Dan asks her name, which she gives as Alice Ayres. They soon become involved.
One year later, Dan has written a novel based on Alice's life. While being photographed to publicise it, he flirts with the American photographer Anna Cameron. They share a kiss before Alice arrives. While she uses the bathroom, Dan tries to persuade Anna to meet with him, but their conversation is cut short by Alice's return.
Alice asks Anna if she can have her portrait taken as well. She agrees, so Alice asks Dan to leave them alone during the photoshoot. While being photographed, she reveals to Anna that she overheard them. Anna photographs her while she is crying. Alice does not tell Dan what she heard, and their relationship continues, but he spends a year brooding over Anna.
Another year later, Dan enters a cybersex chat room and converses with Larry Gray, a British dermatologist. Still obsessed with Anna, Dan pretends to be her and invites Larry to meet at the aquarium, where he knows Anna often goes. Larry goes to the rendezvous, where he happens to meet her, and learns that he is the victim of a prank. Anna tells Larry that Dan was most likely to blame for the setup. Soon, Anna and Larry become a couple.
Four months later at Anna's photo exhibition, Larry meets Alice, whom he recognises from the displayed photograph of her in tears. Anna had told him that Alice and Dan are a couple. Dan persuades Anna to become involved with him, and they cheat on their respective partners for a year, even after Anna and Larry marry halfway through the year.
Returning from a work trip, Larry tells Anna he has cheated on her with a prostitute. In response, Anna confesses the affair to Larry, while Dan confesses to Alice. Dan and Anna leave their relationships for one another.
Heartbroken, Alice again becomes a stripper. One day, Larry runs into her at the strip club. When he asks her real name, she tells him it is Jane Jones. He asks her to have sex with him, but she refuses.
Later, Larry and Anna meet for coffee so he can sign their divorce papers. He bargains with her – if she sleeps with him, he will sign the documents and thereafter leave her alone. Anna and Dan later meet and, once she reveals the divorce papers have been signed, he realizes she has had sex with Larry. She did it so he would leave them alone, but Dan is furious and does not trust her.
A distraught Dan later confronts Larry to get Anna back. Larry tells him Anna never filed the signed divorce papers and suggests he return to Alice. She takes Dan back and they plan a visit to the United States for a vacation. While in a hotel room at Gatwick Airport celebrating being back together, they talk about how they met.
Bringing up Larry, Dan then asks if she had sex with him. She initially denies it but a short while later, she says she does not love him anymore and that she did sleep with Larry. Dan forgives Alice, but she insists it is over and tells him to leave. The argument culminates in him slapping her.
At the film's end, Larry and Anna are together, and Alice returns to New York City alone. As she passes through the immigration checkpoint on her way back into the States, a shot of her passport shows her real name is Jane Jones, revealing she had lied about her name during her entire four-year relationship with Dan but had told the truth to Larry, even though he did not believe her.
Back in London, Dan returns to Postman's Park and notices the name Alice Ayres on the tiles of the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice. The Ayres dedication is to a young woman, "who by intrepid conduct" and "at the cost of her own young life," rescued three children from a fire.
The final scene, which resembles the first, shows Alice/Jane walking on a New York street alone being stared at by several of the men around her. She crosses a crosswalk that appears to have a "Don't Walk" signal up.
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