AllMovie

A jazz vocal trio appears to set the scene of a little white house in Suburbia, the occupants of which are Sam and Dinah, a couple married for 10 years who seem to have lost the ability to communicate effectively. Breakfast is a tense ritual, with Dinah accusing Sam of having an interest in her secretary, a charge he angrily denies. Matters worsen when Sam refuses to come see their son in his school play, as he wishes to go to the gym and participate in an important handball tournament. Sam goes to work, where he gets tremendous satisfaction from his handling of business affairs, and Dinah visits her analyst, to whom she reveals a dream about a beautiful garden gone to seed and a yearning for "a quiet place," a place she was once sure she and Sam would find together. Sam, in the meantime, is reminded by his secretary of a pass he once made at her, and he is discomforted by this. Leaving her session, Dinah runs into Sam on the street, but they each pretend they have other engagements to avoid spending time with each other. Dinah attends a film, Trouble in Tahiti, a torrid South Seas romance which she initially derides, but which clearly has affected her. Sam wins his handball tournament, but his joy turns to sorrow when he pictures the argument he is bound to have with Dinah. The two have a halting conversation which leads nowhere, and Dinah admits she too missed their son's play. Depressed and unable to confront their problems, they go to see the film Dinah viewed that afternoon, looking for fulfillment onscreen that they cannot find in their own lives.