这部改编自意大利当代作家安东尼奥·塔布其(Antonio Tabucchi)小说的影片将背景设在里斯本炎热的八月。法国作家保罗遇见了形形色色故去的亲人朋友，他们从他的记忆中浮现出来，进入到现实世界中。诗人皮埃尔带他去餐厅，保罗的父亲则想知道自己死去的原因。当保罗来到一间私人俱乐部时，领班的服务员把一瓶1952年的葡萄酒压赌在一注台球上。小说和影片都在向葡萄牙作家费尔南多·佩索阿(Fernando Pessoa)作致敬。

What is the nature of life? What is the nature of art? How can art influence our lives? These are the questions of this movie. The main character, a man who lives both in the world of dreams and reality, searches his past, in order to understand its meaning. He has meetings with the ghosts of his dead friend, his dead lover, his dead father and Pessoa, the great portuguese writer. These four encounters give him clues about what he is looking for. Beside that, he finds himself in front of art, discovering how it modifies our comprehension of life. It's based in one of Tabucci's (the italian writer)books: "Requiem". This few lines cannot resume the greatness of this movie. The last thing I can say is: If you like art, I recommend you to see it. If you ever wonder about the nature of dreams, or you live in dreams half of the time, I think you'll feel like this movie was made for you.

À Lisbonne, l'auteur français Paul rencontre diverses personnes de son passé qui redécouvrent des souvenirs oubliés.

O filme se passa num escaldante dia de verão. Paul, o narrador, tem um encontro marcado com um convidado que não é outro senão o fantasma do grande escritor Fernando Pessoa. Paul chega em Lisboa ao meio-dia e se dá conta de que os fantasmas só aparecem à meia-noite. Entre meio dia e meia noite numa série de casualidades e ao reconstituir seu passado, Paul encontra diversos personagens, uma curiosa mistura de pessoas, vivas e mortas, cujos caminhos se cruzam num mesmo momento de um tempo descontínuo.