Awaiting London's Heathrow Airport for a flight to New York City, Frances Andros (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), seen off by her tycoon husband, Paul Andros (Richard Burton), plans to leave her spouse for the arms of an aging international playboy, Marc Champselle (Louis Jourdan). Les Mangrum (Rod Taylor), a self-made Australian businessman travelling with his loyal secretary, Miss Mead (Dame Maggie Smith), must be in New York City the following day to arrange the loan that will help him repel a hostile takeover of his tractor company. Max Buda (Orson Welles), a movie mogul travelling with starlet Gloria Gritti (Elsa Martinelli), must get out of England immediately or face ruinous British income tax. The Duchess of Brighton (Dame Margaret Rutherford) has taken a job as a hostess at an American holiday resort, thinking she will be able to keep her family estate on her new income. Fog descends and blurs the future for them all, forced now to wait in the airport hotel for morning and fair ...