Plot

One couple's story as they try to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.

Following the death of their only offspring, an infant son named Cody, married New Yorkers Conor Ludlow and Eleanor Rigby - a struggling restaurateur and an academic working on her Ph.D. in Anthropology before Cody arrived in their lives - hit a rough spot in their relationship. Although still loving Conor, El is uncertain if she can bear what Conor represents to her and bear the grief even if Conor is no longer in her life. Following an incident, El decides to disappear from Conor's life, she taking refuge at the suburban home of her parents Julian and Mary Rigby, an academic himself and a musician respectively. Just to keep her mind active and off the thought of Conor or Cody, Julian suggests to El that she return to college and he pulls some strings for El possibly to enter into his colleague Professor Lilian Friedman's class. Despite being a therapist himself, he also tries to get El to see a therapist to deal with her grief. Meanwhile, Conor is facing his own emotional and professional problems, he believing his life being clear when he was with El. The restaurant was in part following his father Spencer Ludlow's professional footsteps, although Conor does not like to believe he is anything like his father in temperament, he who is on his third marriage, each of the previous two which failed. As Conor tries to locate El, he also has to deal with the downward slide of the restaurant, which he opened in another part as a cooperative arrangement with classically trained chef Stuart, a longtime friend who nonetheless doesn't treat cooking with much seriousness. Conor also has to deal with the logistics of packing up his and El's apartment which includes what to do with Cody's belongings. In his loneliness, Conor may fall prey to other women despite still loving El himself. With these two parallel tracks, the question becomes if they can find each other again both physically and emotionally.—Huggo

Note: this film is an edited together version of the two Eleanor Rigby films 'Him' and 'Her'.

In the opening scene, Connor (James McAvoy) and Eleanor (Jessica Chastain) are on a date a local New York City restaurant. Connor eventually tells Eleanor that he does not have enough money to pay for their meal. The two dine and dash. They end up in Central Park and collapse to the ground and laugh about it. The take a moment to notice the fireflies hovering nearby.

In the next scene, while riding her bicycle over a bridge in New York, Eleanor decides to commit suicide and climbs the barrier and throws herself into the Hudson River. She is successfully rescued. At the hospital, Connor arrives to be at Eleanor's bedside.

Some days later, Eleanor is collected by her sister, Katy (Jess Weixler) who brings her back to their parents' home in Westport where Katy, along with her young son, are also living. Unsure of what to do with her life, Eleanor decides to listen to her father's suggestion that she re-enroll in school at a local university. She talks her way into late registration in professor Lilian Friedman's (Viola Davis) class and the two become friendly.

Unable to live in their apartment alone, Connor moves back in with his father at his fancy row-house. While discussing the failure of his marriage with his best friend Stu (Bill Hader), who works in Connor's restaurant as the cook, Stu reveals to Connor that he saw Eleanor and believes she is taking classes at NYU. Connor begins to follow Eleanor.

One day, Connor goes to one of Eleanor's classes and passes her a note saying "Hi." Eleanor leaves the class and the two have an angry confrontation outside, with Eleanor insisting that he leave her alone. Connor is hit by a taxi cab as he leaves and Eleanor stays with him until the ambulance arrives.

Meanwhile, Eleanor's father (William Hurt) also attempts to get her to see a psychiatrist. It is revealed that Eleanor has recently lost a son and has been incapable of coping with the grief.

After going over the bills for his restaurant, Connor realizes they are losing money and cannot keep afloat. Depressed, he has a one-night stand with Alexis (Nina Arianda), the bartender of his restaurant.

One day, Connor goes to Eleanor's parents' home in Westport to try to see her, but instead is confronted with his mother-in-law, Mary (Isabelle Huppert), who gives him little information and suggests that he and Eleanor want different things now.

After Katy tells Eleanor that Connor has been by the house while she was out, Eleanor goes to see him at his restaurant, where she learns it is failing and may go out of business very soon. She suggests that they rent a car and go driving aimlessly, something that she had once suggested they do when they were dating.

Connor rents the car and they go on their drive in the countryside. He tells her that he will be packing up their apartment the following week as he can no longer hold onto it. Soon, it begins to rain heavily and their windshield wiper is broken making driving impossible. While they wait for the rain to pass Eleanor tries to initiate sex but Connor stops her and Eleanor realizes he has slept with someone else during their separation. She tells him it doesn't matter but on the return trip home she gets out of the car early and takes a moment to gather herself before continuing home.

The following evening, Eleanor and Katy go clubbing. Eleanor tries to pick up a stranger to have a one-night stand but finds herself unable to go through with it.

After a talk with his father at his father's restaurant, Connor offers to take over as full time manager when his father brings up issues about his retirement.

At NYU, Eleanor meets with Lilian at her offices and tells her that she is quitting her class. Lilian accepts this.

Connor goes to his former apartment to clean it out. He falls asleep, and when he wakes Eleanor is there having decided also to visit the place one last time. She tells him she can no longer remember what their child looked like and he tells her that their son looked like her, but with his eyes. The two have sex, but Eleanor leaves and returns home to her parents house in Westport. At her mother's suggestion, she decides to leave for Paris and finish the anthropology dissertation she abandoned when she met Connor.

A few days later, as Eleanor says goodbye to her family, her nephew asks when she will return and he is told that she will come back to visit next summer. Katy drives Eleanor away.

Sometime later, Connor is working at his father's restaurant (with Stu and Alexis also working there). He decides to take a walk in nearby Central Park before the late night rush. As he walks, he does not notice he is being followed by a woman who appears to be Eleanor.