A beautiful woman discovers a new side of her personality in this erotic drama. Kansas-born Emily Reed (Carré Otis) is an intelligent but naive young woman who has made a name for herself as a lawyer and is hired to work with businesswoman Claudia Lirones (Jacqueline Bisset), who is putting the finishing touches on a major real estate deal. Claudia brings Emily with her as she jets off to Rio De Janeiro to wrap up the sale of a resort hotel to the Chinese. When Claudia is unexpectedly called away, Emily is left in the care of James Wheeler (Mickey Rourke), an expatriate American multi-millionaire with a truly remarkable tan who is in on Claudia's deal. The Carnivale is in full swing in Rio, and James seeks to broaden Emily's horizons by introducing her to the sensual pleasures lurking all around her; James and Emily soon become involved, which complicates matters when Claudia returns. One of Wild Orchid's love scenes between Mickey Rourke and Carré Otis had to be trimmed so that the film could gain an R rating for American release (the uncut version was later released on home video); a widely circulated rumor had it that Rourke and Otis, who were living together at the time, had actually had sex while the scene was filmed, though Otis later denied it.