A crowd has gathered in the town square to witness the sentencing of the perfume maker, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw). The mob erupts when he is dragged, in shackles, to the citadel balcony, roaring in approval when the death sentence is announced.

22 years earlier. Paris.

Grenouille’s mother (Birgit Minichmayr) gives birth to him in the stench of the Paris fish market on the hottest day of the year. She tries to hide the unwanted child among the fish entrails cast under the gutting table of her stall. But the newborn, as if out of sheer spite, gives out a horrible scream and is saved by a passer-by. The mother is carted off by the authorities and hanged for the attempted murder of her child.

Grenouille spends the first years of his life in the orphanage of Madame Gaillard (Sian Thomas). The other children know that there is something strange about the infant and try to smother him on the eve of his arrival. But Mme. Gaillard will not be denied the subsidy she receives by housing the orphan, and saves him. By the age of six, though he does not talk, it is apparent that Grenouille possesses a phenomenal sense of smell. He crawls around the grounds of the orphanage, learning to experience the world around him through his olfactory prowess.
For ten francs Madame Gaillard sells the now 13-year-old Grenouille to Grimal (Sam Douglas), who owns a tannery. The work in the tanning pits, filled with stinking nitrates and rotting hides, is extremely hazardous, but the boy survives the hellish conditions and grows into a young man.

On his first visit to Paris, amidst the mélange of city odors, the wind carries the most exquisite aroma Grenouille has ever experienced. He ecstatically follows the scent through the moonlit streets and alleyways to its source, the beautiful plum girl (Karoline Herfurth). The girl senses a sudden chill in the air and turns to find Grenouille’s eyes staring into hers. She is about to scream as Grenouille covers her mouth with his hand and drags her into the shadows to avoid a couple passing by. From the darkness, he watches them kiss, as the girl struggles for air. At last the couple turn the corner and Grenouille finally releases his hand to discover that he has killed the girl. He desperately tries to capture her scent, to drink it and cup it in his hands as if it were liquid. But her irresistible odor fades as the life ebbs from her body and Grenouille is filled with an overwhelming sense of loss for her vanished aroma. His life’s work must be to capture it again.

Grenouille apprentices himself to the perfumer Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), a man whose business is failing and is desperate for a new “signature” scent. Grenouille quickly shows his prowess at creating fragrances of perfection that will restore Baldini’s reputation. In exchange, he asks the old master to teach him the art of capturing and preserving scents. When he learns that the scent of a living being cannot be distilled into an essence, Grenouille nearly dies of dismay. Baldini tells him that the only place where the mysterious method of enfleurage (the extraction of a flower’s essential oil) is being used is in the town of Grasse. He can find the knowledge he seeks there.

Grenouille sets off for Grasse immediately. En route, he discovers, in a cave in the Massif Central, that he has no odor of his own, as if he doesn't exist. This experience shakes him to the core and he decides to create a scent for himself that is irresistible.

On the road to Grasse, a carriage carrying a merchant's beautiful daughter Laura (Rachel Hurd-Wood) passes him by. Grenouille sniffs the air. There it is again, that fatally wonderful scent which only once before in his life had he encountered. A scent he must possess...

Grenouille signs on as a journeyman with Madame Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch), who owns a small perfume workshop. He is given a meager stipend and a windowless hut in which to sleep. He sets about to master the art of enfleurage and be able to capture any scent he desires.

In the ensuing weeks, young, exceptionally beautiful girls are being murdered. The merchant Richis (Alan Rickman) is the only one who suspects that the fiend is obsessed, a collector of beauty. When the pretty twin daughters of his friend Tallien (GUILLERMO AYESA) are murdered and found naked with their heads shaved, Richis starts to fear greatly for his own daughter, Laura.

Twelve girls have now been found dead. Grenouille opens a small cabinet and gazes at twelve tiny glass flacons, each filled with but a few drops of amber-colored oil. He is missing only one scent, one final note, to complete his perfume.

Panic builds as citizens bar their doors and nail their windows shut. A suspect is arrested for the murders but Richis is convinced that the authorities have the wrong man. Under cover of night, he flees the town with his daughter and takes her to the safety of an obscure seaside inn. But Grenouille follows Laura's scent as far as the Mediterranean. The next morning, when Richis finds the body of his daughter, naked with her locks shorn, he collapses in despair.

Grenouille kneels by a small fire in the forest, where he has set up his equipment. A final bead of oil drops from an alembic spout into a small flacon. He mixes this final oil together with the other twelve. He sniffs the air in all directions, sensing danger, as he hides the perfume bottle in his pocket. He is surrounded by soldiers and taken into custody. Back in Grasse, he freely confesses to his crimes, but remains silent about his motives.