William, a reserved and solitary tax consultant in Paris, is surprised when a distressed young woman comes into his office and starts telling him her marital problems.

Anna does come back to William's office and a strange relationship develops, where she tells tales of her life and sexual activities while he listens sympathetically.

[5] Ruth Vitale (who was the president of Paramount Classics at that time) was pleased with this film's performance in the United States market.

The site's consensus states "Intimate Strangers is Hitchcockian noir with a Gallic twist: Rather than simply imitating the genre's form, director/screenwriter Patrice Leconte delves into the underlying psychological drama.

[9] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, and wrote: "We find we cannot take anything for face value in this story, that the motives of this woman and her husband are so deeply masked that even at the end of the film we are still uncertain about exactly what to believe, and why.