Anne, a Swedish fashion designer, travels to Helsinki to meet a man with whom she has had a short love affair in Berlin. When she gets there, she regrets her trip and realizes that in reality she has come to say goodbye.

The film is about this farewell, which perhaps will not take place. The men surrounding her, a Finnish architect, his colleague, and a Frenchman, Jacques, are all uncertain and hesitant.

At the end of the story, her conflict is still unresolved.

Donner's third film is more ambitious than his earlier features. The story is built from fragments of memory, which are joined without the aid of dissolves. The various languages spoken accentuate the emotional conflict between the lovers. Adventure Starts Here is prolific in its incidents; it is an essay on the problems of assimilation and the most distinctive film Donner has made.