 The movie opens with college student Richard Collier gathering rave reviews for his new play. At the party, he comes face to face with an old woman who presses something in his hand and whispers, "Come back to me." He opens his hand to find an old pocket watch. Cut to several years later. Playwright Collier is in the midst of a break-up and writers block. He leaves the city for awhile to think things out and finds himself near his alma mater at the Grand Hotel. While wandering around the hotel, he finds a photograph of a beautiful young woman. Richard is entranced, and tries to find out all he can about her. During the course of his research he learns she was Elise McKenna, an actress from the turn of the century. He also discovers that she was the mysterious old woman who gave him the watch. Finally determining that he must meet her somehow, he employees self-hypnosis and wills himself back to 1912. He meets Elise and they fall in love, which does not make her manager, William Fawcett Robinson, happy at all. Will their love survive Robinson s disapproval? Will Richard be able to stay in 1912?