Set against the background of the Spanish Civil War, the plot centers on socialist playwright Katherine McGregor and renowned photographer Georges Malraux, a Polish Jew who fled his homeland for Paris. The two first meet in Hollywood at a party announcing the film adaptation of Katherine's play Tempest in Spain, based on the opera Carmen. The two are reunited in Barcelona, where they unexpectedly find themselves falling in love as they become embroiled in a battle against fascism.