Edward (Richard Gere) and Connie Sumner (Diane Lane) are a married couple living in the northern suburbs of New York City (Westchester County, New York) with their 8-year-old son, Charlie (Erik Per Sullivan). Their relationship is loving, but is lacking intimacy due to their schedules. One afternoon, Connie goes shopping for Charlie's upcoming birthday party. She is caught in a heavy windstorm, and runs into a handsome stranger (Olivier Martinez). They both fall, and Connie scrapes her knees. He offers to treat her injuries in his apartment, and she accepts. Inside, the man introduces himself as Paul Martel, a 27-year-old used book salesman. Paul makes small advances toward Connie, which makes her uncomfortable, and she decides to leave. Before doing so, Paul gives her a book of Persian poetry as a gift. After returning home, Connie tells Edward what happened, and he suggests they buy Paul a thank-you gift.While reading the book Paul gave her, Connie finds his phone number inside. Connie calls Paul for his address, but he invites her over for coffee instead. Paul reads Connie a book in Braille amidst mild flirting. Connie, despite her feelings of attraction, leaves. Connie is unable to stop thinking about Paul, and decides to visit him with a bag of muffins. After Connie and Paul have a dance, she stops, saying she can't continue, and leaves. When she returns to retrieve her coat, Paul literally sweeps her off her feet and into his bedroom. While on a train ride home via the Metro-North Railroad, Connie recalls their sexual encounter. She is thrilled by the sexual attention she is receiving from a younger man, but feels guilty at the same time. Connie uses her work at a charity event as an excuse to visit Paul more frequently, but Edward finds inconsistencies in her stories when he speaks with friends.Edward, suspicious, decides to hire private investigator, Frank Wilson (Dominic Chianese), to follow her. Frank returns with pictures of Connie and Paul leaving a movie theatre, which devastates Edward. Connie's visits with Paul become more frequent, to the point that she is late to pick up Charlie from school. Following this incident, she realizes she can no longer carry on the affair. Unsuccessfully trying to end the affair over the phone, Connie decides it would be best to do so in person. She spots Paul with another woman when she arrives. After confronting Paul, their argument ends in a tryst in the stairwell. At the same time, Edward is standing outside Paul's apartment building, where Edward and Connie narrowly miss each other. Edward goes to Paul's doorstep and confronts him, revealing that he is Connie's husband. Edward asks to come into Paul's apartment, and after Paul invites him in, Edward is stunned to see a snow globe there, which he recognizes as a gift he gave to Connie for their anniversary. Paul reveals that Connie gave it to him as a gift. Intoxicated after two cups of vodka, Edward suddenly has a mental breakdown and hits Paul with the snow globe, fracturing his skull and killing him.After wrapping Paul's body in a rug and cleaning up evidence of the murder and of his own presence in the apartment, Edward hears Connie leaving a message on Paul's answering machine, saying she must end the affair. Edward erases all the messages and leaves, putting Paul's body in the trunk of his car. Edward joins his wife at Charlie's school play, and afterwards, dumps Paul's body at a landfill. In the ensuing days, Paul's murder plagues Edward, who is unable to stop thinking about what he has done. When two police detectives arrive at the Sumner home, they explain to Connie that Paul's estranged wife had reported him missing, and that they had found Connie's phone number in his apartment. Connie claims she only bought a book from him. A week later, the detectives return and tell Connie and Edward that they had found Paul's body. When police ask her how she first met Paul, she replies that she met Paul at a fundraiser. To Connie's surprise, Edward corroborates her story. Later that night, Connie finds Frank's photos of her and Paul, and realizes that Edward knows about the affair. After noticing that the snow globe has been returned to their home, Connie deduces that Edward murdered Paul.Connie and Edward argue and, out of anger and frustration, Edward says that he wanted to kill her instead of Paul. In the days that follow, while looking at the underside of the snow globe, Connie discovers a hidden compartment containing a photograph of her, Edward, and an infant Charlie, with a loving anniversary message from Edward. As Connie is burning the photographs of her and Paul in the fireplace, Edward says he will turn himself in. Connie objects, saying they will find a way to move on. The two then appear to go about living a normal life. One night, while driving, with Charlie sleeping in the backseat, Edward stops the car at an intersection. Connie whispers to Edward that they could leave the country and assume new identities, and Edward agrees to the idea. Connie then starts crying, and Edward consoles her. It is revealed that Edward has stopped his car near a police station, signifying the constant fear of retribution they will endure for the rest of their lives.
Output: Question: Does Ed receive punishment for his crimes?, Answer: no