After everything in her life falls to pieces, including her marriage to wealthy businessman Hal, elegant New York socialite Jasmine moves into her sister Ginger’s modest

apartment in San Francisco to try to pull herself

back together again.

Jasmine arrives in San Francisco in a fragile mental state,

her head reeling from the cocktail of anti - depressants

she's on . While still able to project her aristocratic bearing, Jasmine is emotionally precarious and lacks any practical ability to support herself. She disapproves of

Ginger’s boyfriend Chili, who she considers another “loser” like Ginger’s ex - husband Augie. Ginger, recognizing but not fully understanding her sister’s psychological instability, suggests that she pursue interior design, a career she correctly intuits that Jasmine won’t feel is beneath her. In the meantime, Jasmine begrudgingly accepts work as the receptionist in a dentist’s office, where she attracts the unwanted attentions of her boss, Dr. Flicker.

Feeling that her sister might be right about her poor taste in men, Ginger starts seeing Al, a sound engineer whom she considers as a step up from Chili. Jasmine sees a potential lifeline when she meets Dwight, a diplomat who is quickly smitten with her beauty, sophistication and style.

Jasmine’s flaw is that she derives her worth from the way she’s perceived by others, while she herself is blind to what is going around her. Jasmine earns our compassion because she is the unwitting instrument of her own downfall.