When Tessa Garcia decides that there may be more to life than working for Francois Coty's Perfume Empire, a catalogue of unexpected events unfolds.
Tessa Garcia is personal secretary to Francois Coty, the most successful perfumer of his generation and enjoys the freedom granted to a single, working young woman living in Paris in the 1920's. All her life, Tessa has dreamed of working for him, but now she suspects that a successful career alone is not enough. Family personify the debate as to whether a balance between work and a personal life is attainable.
Tessa finds herself vulnerable to the jealousy of ambitious co-workers circulating rumours. Suspecting that he is losing Tessa, Coty asks her to write down his life story. Through this she realises what she needs from life as he appears to have all he wants.
By visiting her mother and sisters, Tessa realises that her life is incomplete. But matters are threatened to be taken out of her hands when the carismatic Gaston Bistoche enters the Coty community and attempts to not only bring about her downfall, but also Coty's.
Sandes, the man she gave up for this highly prized career appears once again in her life and she is at the centre of the triangle between Coty, Bistoche and Sandes from which none of them wish her to escape.