Ben is a failed writer-turned-academic whose "happily ever after" has begun to feel more like "the end". He immerses himself in Chekhov's story "The Lady with the Dog," a permanent fixture on his sylllabus, about an affair giving way to true love. When his wife Audrey, goes to Paris to meet with the publisher of her first novel, Ben begins an affair with Mercedes - a budding writer herself. The affair is soon spinning beyond anyone's control, and while Ben, Audrey and Mercedes are each ready to go to extreme lengths to save their own skin, none can escape unscathed.