As they embark on a cruise to the Mediterranean, Stephen asks his sister Charlotte to wear a wedding band to avoid "gossip" about sleeping in the same room. Charlotte suspects her brother is gay, but hasn't confronted him with it. At their vegetarian dinner table, they meet Byron, a handsome pseudo-intellectual who admires everything American, and his thug-ugly sidekick Nikos, who subsidizes Byron but resents his companion's interest. The four are brought together in a series of events that will, for one of them, result in the ultimate tragedy.