On a springtime Friday afternoon in Paris, Aline Berger, a 35-year-old professor of literature, waits for her train home to Brussels, thumbing impatiently through Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Then, abruptly, Orlanda materializes. Called forth by some literary magic, she is Aline's exuberant and adventurous alter ego, born of Aline's 12-year-old tomboy spirit. Fettered far too long by the adult Aline's demure propriety, Orlanda spots a receptive external host in Lucien Lefr ne, a luscious, faintly unsavory, blond 20-year-old youth sitting quietly nearby. Thus begins a labyrinthine ride along converging and diverging paths of sexual and personal identity. Aline and Lucien return to their respective homes and partners in Brussels, but with Orlanda on the loose, life cannot continue as usual.