Film editor Robert Cole invites his girl friend, Mary Harvard, to dinner and breaks up with her. This is an ongoing pattern in their relationship, and Mary wonders how long he plans to be apart this time, but Robert insists this is their final split. When he returns to work, Robert’s assistant editor, Jay, is surprised at the news, but supports his friend. Jay reveals the director wants additional changes for the low-budget science fiction film they are editing, but Robert feels too upset to work. Jay insists he can handle the changes and gives Robert two Quaalude tranquilizers to help him relax. At home, Robert takes both pills. Feeling the full effects of the tranquilizers, he telephones Jay to compliment his work and say that he loves him. Jay cautions him to stay home for the night and rest. Robert flips through his Rolodex, sees a telephone number for Ellen and calls her. He claims to have deep feelings for Ellen, and wants to take her out the following evening. Ellen is surprised, but accepts. Harry, a former co-worker, telephones Robert to ask for a reference and Robert promises a glowing review. When Harry asks about Mary, Robert reveals they have broken up, and Harry wants to ask Mary for a date. Furious, Robert insults him and hangs up. Upset at the thought of Mary having sex with Harry, Robert stumbles out to his car to drive to Mary’s home. However, he passes out in the vehicle and awakens the next morning. He dresses for work and returns to the car, but the battery is dead. He telephones Jay, learns the edits are completed and they do not meet with the director until tomorrow. Robert takes the day off to recuperate from the break-up. He determines to start a healthy new life and decides to begin running. A clerk at the sporting goods store sells him expensive running shoes, sweat clothes and accessories. At the track, Robert starts to run, but soon veers off to a pay phone and calls Mary’s office at Fidelity Savings Bank. He becomes jealous when he learns Mary is at lunch with a man. Later, he decides to cancel his date with Ellen and stay home. He reaches Ellen’s answering machine, but leaves a message confirming their date. He talks himself into going, but wishes he could remember what Ellen looks like. He calls the bank again and gets Mary on the phone, but hangs up without speaking. That night, he drives to Mary’s house and she is angry that he keeps bothering her. Robert accuses her of having a date and she shuts the door on him. He picks up Ellen and remembers they met at a film wrap party. Robert reveals he just broke up with Mary and this is his first “new” date. As they drive off, a romantic song comes on the radio, and he drives Ellen back home, claiming it is too early for him to date again. He stops at a store to purchase a stuffed giraffe and other gifts. Mary is not home, so he leaves the pile of presents on her doorstep with a love note. When Robert returns home, the only message on his answering machine is from his mother. Unable to wait for Mary’s response, he drives by her home and sees the presents still on the porch. He continues driving, stopping often to call Mary from pay phones. He drives by her house yet again and sees the presents still on her doorstep. When he returns home, there is a message from Mary that she likes the giraffe and misses him. Robert rushes to her house. He wonders why she did not drive around the city thinking of him and calling all the time. She suggests he confuses movie love with real love, and claims she expresses her feelings in different ways. After a short discussion, they make love. In the morning, Mary dresses for work and Robert thinks her outfit is too sexy, but she laughs at him and leaves. While looking for a razor in Mary’s bathroom, Robert finds her telephone bill in a drawer. He notices several calls to New York and wonders who she spoke with for hours at a time. At work, Robert is satisfied with the edits Jay made, but cuts an additional line to improve the scene. However, David, the director, is attached to the cut line and wants it put back in the film. David reveals his insecurities about the film, but Robert assures him the movie is good, and David invites Robert and Mary to a party at his home. When they arrive, Mary recognizes a customer from her bank and talks to him while David introduces Robert to George Kennedy, the actor starring in their film. Next, he introduces Meadowlark Lemon, who is starring in David’s next film, and Meadowlark asks about the “hot looking girl” Robert brought to the party. Robert immediately searches out Mary and they leave. Back at her place, Robert insists they should be alone because they are in a mending process, but she insists they are always in that process. The next day, Robert calls Mary during an afternoon break to discuss dinner plans. She says she might have a working dinner and cannot talk at the moment, but will call back. Robert pulls her telephone bill from his pocket and dials the New York number. When a man answers, Robert hangs up. Later, Robert calls the bank and learns Mary is attending a business dinner at the Imperial Gardens restaurant. He interrupts her dinner and she excuses herself to speak with him. Mary says she tried to call him back, but the line was busy. He wonders why she is the only female at her table, and asks her to leave and have dinner with him. Mary insists she is working, and Robert is embarrassing her. Before Mary returns to her meeting, Robert convinces her to go away for a romantic weekend with him. As they drive to a mountain cabin in Idyllwild, California, Mary tells Robert that her dinner meeting was successful and the clients signed a big deal with her bank. When they reach the cabin, there is no phone inside. Mary steps outside and uses a pay phone to call her friend Susan, who might stay at Mary’s home and needs to know where the house key is hidden. When Mary returns, Robert thinks she seems happier after her phone conversation and questions whether she called Susan. He admits he found her phone bill and asks about the New York calls. Mary reveals she dated the man during a previous break-up, and is angry that Robert invaded her privacy. She feels it is too painful to date Robert and insists their relationship is over. Robert claims he is crazy because he loves her, and he believes their troubles stem from a lack of real commitment. He asks her to marry him and she accepts. Robert and Mary married three weeks later in Las Vegas, Nevada, and divorced the following month. They are currently dating with plans to remarry.