The film begins with Gil Pender (played by Owen Wilson), a Hollywood screenwriter struggling to find inspiration for his next project. During a trip to Paris with his fiancée, Inez (played by Marion Cotillard), Gil becomes disenchanted with the modern city and longs for the artistic and literary Paris of the past. One night, while wandering the streets of Montmartre, Gil stumbles upon a mysterious portal that transports him back to the 1920s.