Set in London, the film opens with American best-selling author Catherine Tramell in a speeding car with her companion, Kevin Franks, a famous English football star. Tramell takes the man's hand and begins masturbating herself with it, all the while increasing her vehicle's speed. Franks, who is semi-unconscious, does not seem to be aware of what is happening. At the point of orgasm, Tramell veers off the road and crashes into the West India Docks in Canary Wharf on the Thames River. She attempts to save her partner, but, as she says while being questioned later by the police, "When it came down to it, I guess my life was more important to me than his."