The widow, Anna Glawari, faces a dilemma. Pontevedro, her native country, will be left bankrupt if she weds a foreigner. An Embassy plot to marry her off to the debonair Count Danilo Danilovitch is complicated by the secret affair which has developed between the French attaché, Camille de Rosillon, and the Ambassador's wife, Valencienne. This light-hearted tale of political and amorous intrigue unfolds amidst the gaiety of high society in turn-of-the-century Paris.