Georges Duroy is poor, young, attractive and very ambitious. Offered a job as a journalist in Paris, he soon learns that to make his way in the world he needs to use more than his brains. So he becomes an arch-seducer and social climber, using his looks and charm to bewitch a series of wealthy, influential society beauties and become one of the most successful men of the glittering 'beau monde' of 1890s Paris. His female admirers know him as 'Bel-Ami': to their husbands, he is the enemy. This erotically charged tale of ambition, power and seduction is a dazzling portrayal of a world where sex is power, and celebrity is an obsession.