A great love arises between a young drawer and a newspaper editor 's daughter,Céline .The boy is Hungarian ,and after several affairs , he realizes he has drawn Céline's portrait of memory.As his last lover is unfaithful ,he feels alone and he turns to Céline ;He proposes to her .She accepts but she is minor and they decide they will wait four years .We are told what happens during these years:the ordeals they go through: Celine's illness, the coming of a gorgeous Italian whose charms bewitch the fiance.