Handlung

Although they live married lives, two strangers keep running into each other, starting a friendship that could blossom into so much more.

During shopping for Christmas, Frank and Molly run into each other. This fleeting short moment will start to change their lives, when they recognize each other months later in the train home and have a good time together. Although both are married and Frank has two little kids, they meet more and more often, their friendship becoming the most precious thing in their lives.—Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

Molly, (Meryl Streep) is a beautiful housewife who is married to a doctor and lives in upstate NY. While out Christmas shopping she accidentally gets her packages mixed up in a Manhattan bookstore with a handsome young man named Frank (Rober De Niro). Frank is a married architect with two young children who also lives upstate. Months later they take the same train into NYC and bump into each other again. There is an instant attraction between them but neither of them is looking for an affair. They keep bumping into each other and having longer conversations. They are both falling in love against their better judgments. Honest with each other about not looking for an extramarital affair, they cannot resist seeing each other, just to talk. Their emotions grow stronger and they cannot stop thinking about each other.—Liz

On Christmas Eve, commercial artist Molly Gilmore and architectural engineer Frank Raftis are last-minute Christmas shopping in Manhattan. Frank meets his colleague Ed for drinks; Ed tells Frank he is getting divorced. Molly sees her friend Isabelle, who is married, but plans to spend Christmas with another man; Molly also visits her sick father. Later that day, at the counter in a hectic bookstore, Frank and Molly get their packages mixed up, and on Christmas Day, Molly's husband, Brian, and Frank's wife, Ann, each opens the book that was meant for the other.

Three months later, Frank and Molly, who commute into Manhattan from adjacent stops on the Metro-North Hudson Line, run into each other on the morning train. They struggle to place each other, but eventually Frank remembers, and reminds her of the confusion over the books. Later that day, Frank's boss asks him to take a post in Houston. Molly visits her father in hospital. Molly tells Isabelle about Frank; Frank tells Ed about Molly. That evening, Frank waits for Molly at Grand Central Terminal. They talk, and agree to meet on the morning train later that week.

Against their better judgement, Frank and Molly grow closer. They see more and more of each other until, one afternoon, Frank takes Molly to Ed's apartment. They begin to make love, but Molly cannot go through with it. They agree that they must stop seeing each other.

When Molly returns home that day, Brian gives her the news that her father has died. At the funeral, she has a panic attack. Convalescing, she tells Isabelle that it isn't grief for her father that she is suffering, but the loss of Frank. Meanwhile, Frank agrees to take the job in Houston. He tells Ann about Molly, throwing the future of their marriage into question.

On the night he is due to leave, Frank calls Molly at home. Frank asks to see her before he goes, but as Brian stands listening, she ends the call. Unable to resist, she tells Brian she must see Frank one more time, and rushes to her car. Driving fast in the pouring rain, she nearly collides with a train at a crossing, and misses her chance. Meanwhile Frank tries to call her again but her husband answers the phone and says she doesn't want to talk to Frank.

Some time later, once more in the run up to Christmas, Frank meets Ed and tells him that he and Ann are now separated. Molly meets Isabelle, and it is clear from their conversation that her marriage to Brian has failed too. Frank makes a stop at the bookstore where he and Molly first met. Molly is there at the same time. They talk but, uncertain how things now stand between them, go their separate ways. Walking away from the store, Frank stops, turns, and runs after her. A short time later on a crowded train out of Grand Central, he finds her again. They embrace.