La Contessa Elena Torlato-Favrini (her last name taken from ''The Barefoot Contessa'') is a wealthy Italian industrialist living in a sprawling estate near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. She is attended by Jules the Gardener, his wife Yvonne, their daughter Cécile, the chauffeur Laurent, and the mysterious Della La Rue (or "Della Street," a reference to Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason stories). At the film's opening, Elena goes for a drive by herself and encounters Roger Lennox (his last name taken from ''The Long Goodbye (film)''), an apparent drifter. Elena's trajectory is brought to an abrupt halt as she stops to help Roger, who has evidently been forced off the road by a truck (or is it the nearby tree?) and is severely incapacitated. Roger offers Elena his hand, and Elena accepts his offer (the "miracle of empty hands," borrowed from ''Diary of a Country Priest''). The series of exchanges constituting their relationship begins.