Jesse meets Céline on a train from Budapest and strikes up a discussion with her

towards the beginning of the movie. When Céline is returning to her university in
Paris after seeing her grandmother, Jesse is traveling to Vienna to catch a flight
back to the United States.

Jesse persuades Céline to disembark with him when they arrive in Vienna by arguing
that she might not be content with her marriage ten or twenty years from now and
might wonder how her life might have been different if she had chosen a different
man, and this is an opportunity to realize that he is not that different from the
others; in his words, he is "the same boring, unmotivated guy." They decide to
wander about Vienna because Jesse needs to catch a flight early in the morning and
doesn't have enough money to pay for a hotel room.

After seeing a few famous sites in Vienna, they start to develop love feelings for
one another after exchanging kisses at the top of the Riesenrad Ferris Wheel at
dusk. As they continue to wander the city, they start to converse more freely with
one another about a variety of subjects, including love, life, religion, and their
impressions of the place.

Céline reveals to Jesse that her previous partner dumped her six months ago on the
grounds that she "loved him too much." When questioned, Jesse admits that he had
originally traveled to Europe to visit his girlfriend, who was a student in Madrid,
but that their relationship had ended because she avoided him while he was there.
He had planned to leave Europe on a cheap ticket from Vienna, but because it
wouldn't depart for another two weeks, he opted to travel across Europe instead.

A man approaches them as they are walking next to a canal and offers to compose
them a poem with a word of their choice in it rather than beg for money. After
choosing the word "milkshake," Jesse and Céline receive the poem "Delusion Angel".

Jesse and Céline pretend to be one other's pals in a phone call while acting out
the conversation in a cafe. Céline adds that until Jesse persuaded her to stay on
the train, she was prepared to go with him. Jesse explains that all he truly wanted
was to go away from his life, so after breaking up with his fiancée, he bought a
flight that really wasn't much cheaper.

They acknowledge their attraction to one another and how the night has made them
feel, but they also know that when they depart, they probably won't see one another
again. They simply decide to make the most of their remaining time by concluding
the evening by suggesting that they had a sexual experience. Jesse then clarifies
that if given the option, he would choose to marry her over never seeing her again.
The next morning at the train station, as the train is ready to depart, the two
hastily decide to meet again there in six months.