Marianne, a young Canadian nurse living as an expatriate in Switzerland, is traumatized by a violent incident and becomes lost in the Alps. In time, a Swiss engineer working in the mountains discovers her; he gives her a place to stay and slowly gains her trust as she regains her health. However, he soon discovers she's wanted by the law, and circumstances become difficult for him as he tries to hide her from the authorities.

Even though the protagonist of the Canadian Femme De L'Hotel is a female filmmaker, one would think twice before suggesting that this effort by Swiss-born director Lea Pool is autobiographical. Paule Baillargeon portrays a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, Paule has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman (Louise Marleau). This element of the plot is briefly forgotten as we get to know the actors in Paule's current project. Then she meets the old lady again, and with mounting incredulity Paule discovers that the actual events in the woman's life mirror the fictional events in the director's film.