Lisbon, Portugal, 1927. The writer and journalist Fernando Pessoa accepts from his boss the commission to create an advertising slogan for the drink Coca-Louca; but conservative government authorities consider the new drink as revolutionary as it is diabolical.

In oPorto there is a club, Imperatriz, where everything is permitted. A moment in which all intersect in the dark night.

Laura works as a newscaster and José Maria as a stockbroker, and while they live in the same housing complex, their lives never cross directly. Nevertheless, he watches her from a distance, seeing all her movements without her knowledge. But their lives finally meet when he is invited onto her news program. From there, a romance begins which coincides with the desire of two beings who finally find a reason to seek love once again.

A wealthy landowner, "The Dauphin," enjoys a decadent life of hunting, drinking, and womanizing. He oversees his estate, the Laguna, with his barren wife, his one-armed manservant, and his treasured guard dog. When a sportsman (the film’s narrator) comes to the estate for his annual duck-hunting excursion, he discovers the body of the landowner’s wife floating in the lagoon and the manservant dead on his master’s bed. The Dauphin and his dog are nowhere to be found except for the mysterious barking sounds heard over the lagoon.

Lisbon Story is Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.