When a man looking for companionship (Marcello Mastroianni) and a woman (Maria Schell) waiting for her errant lover cross paths on a bridge, they never expect to get past "Hello." But before the sun rises, the chance encounter transforms them from strangers to lovers. Luchino Visconti directs this haunting black-and-white romance, which updates a 19th-century short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.