Joseph Losey's The Trout showcases the director's stylized use of flashbacks, his erudite literary sensibility and his continued fascination with the ambiguities of contemporary sexuality. They combine to give this tale an abundance of visual and thematic riches.

Frederique (Isabelle Huppert), the daughter of a trout breeder in rural France, uses her sexual magnetism to advance her lowly status in society. She mothers a homosexual husband, Galuchat (Jacques Spiesser), and compels two jet set businessmen to try to win her favors. One of them, Saint Genis (Daniel Olbrychski), takes Frederique to Japan for a fling but comes up short of possessing her. She is more attracted to a powerful Japanese tycoon (Isao Yamagata) and to a hedonistic American millionairess (Alexis Smith).

Frederique returns to France after Galuchat attempts suicide. While he recuperates at the home of Rambert (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the second businessman, she manages to set in motion the destruction of Rambert's marriage to Lou (Jeanne Moreau).

Joseph Losey (The Go-Between, The Accident) proves the inexplicable and often dangerous attractions which drive men and women to commit irrational deeds. Frederique asks Saint Genis "Are you capable of love?" and he can't really answer. Love for these amoral, upwardly mobile, sexually tormented characters is mixed up with power, guilt, self-hate and gamesmanship.