The Night and the Moment is a 1995 erotic drama. A writer (Dafoe) is invited to the house of a noblewoman (Olin) who adores free-thinkers. He attempts to seduce her but she insists that he tell her of his past love exploits. While doing so, he takes her through his time in prison where he was unknowingly incarcerated in the cell beside hers.

It is written among the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, and in the depths of the emerald seas, and upon every grain of sand in the vast deserts, that the world which we see is an outward and visible dream, of an inward and invisible reality ... Once upon a time there was a golden city. In the center of the golden city, atop the tallest minaret, were three golden balls. The ancients had prophesied that if the three golden balls were ever taken away, harmony would yield to discord, and the city would fall to destruction and death. But... the mystics had also foretold that the city might be saved by the simplest soul with the smallest and simplest of things. In the city there dwelt a lowly shoemaker, who was known as Tack the Cobbler. Also in the city... existed a Thief, who shall be... nameless.