Highly educated but cloistered middle-aged bachelor Seligman finds
nymphomaniac Joe beaten up and lying in the alleyway behind his apartment. He takes her to his home and listens as Joe recounts the story of her
libidinous life. Seligman parallels much of what she has experienced with various methods of fly fishing, his favorite sport.
Volume I Joe is raised by a loving father and detached mother. In adolescence, she loses her virginity to neighbor Jerôme, who then leaves her to fix his
moped. Seligman notes that Jerôme penetrated her three times vaginally and five anally, resembling the
Fibonacci sequence. Years later, Joe and her friend B engage in a contest to see who can have sex with the most passengers on a train before its arrival, the winner receiving a bag of chocolate. Joe wins after fellating S, a married passenger who resists both girls' advances until Joe forces herself on him. Joe relays her first experiences with actual love, which she calls "lust with jealousy added". She and her friends establish a club, "The Little Flock", dedicated to freely having sex in an effort to reject society's fixation on love. Joe leaves after all the other members develop serious attachments to their conquests. As a young adult, Joe drops out of medical school and finds work as a secretary at a printing company. Her first employer is Jerôme. She avoids his advances in favor of sleeping with other co-workers, to his consternation. Joe writes Jerôme a letter after realizing her feelings for him, but realizes he has left with the jealous secretary, Liz. She is immediately fired by Jerôme's uncle, the owner of the company, and goes back to indulging her nymphomania despite yearning for Jerôme. While Joe is with one of her lovers, H, his wife arrives and admonishes them in front of their children, which present Joe admits barely affected her. Another lover, A, arrives in the middle of Mrs. H's breakdown. The family eventually leaves, after Mrs. H verbally attacks Joe, slaps H, and flees the apartment, wailing. A conversation about
Edgar Allan Poe's death reminds Joe of the last time she saw her father; she is the only one to visit him in the hospital as he dies of cancer. Joe watches her father experience violent spasms and paranoid delusions, screaming for his wife. To distract herself, Joe has intercourse with several people at the hospital. When he finally dies, Joe becomes aroused before becoming overwhelmed with depression. After Seligman asserts that
Bach perfected
polyphony, Joe discusses the lovers leading up to her "
cantus firmus" - F, a tender but predictable man who prioritizes Joe's sexual needs over his own, and G, whose animalistic control of Joe thrills her. While walking in a local park, Joe encounters Jerôme, who has left Liz. They embrace and engage in authentically passionate sex, but Joe is distraught when she can no longer "feel anything".
Volume II Joe becomes annoyed with Seligman's focus on allegories, realizing he cannot relate to her experiences. He confirms his
asexuality and virginity, but claims this makes him best equipped to listen to her story. Joe reminisces about a vision she had as a young girl of
Valeria Messalina and the
Whore of Babylon looking over her as she levitates and spontaneously has her first orgasm, which Seligman calls a mockery of the
Transfiguration of Jesus. In the past, Joe suffers a crisis over her inability to achieve sexual pleasure. Joe and Jerôme eventually conceive a baby, Marcel. Jerôme allows her to see other men, though this strains their relationship. Joe begins visiting K, a sadist who assaults women seeking his company. At Christmas, after rescuing an unattended Marcel who has
wandered onto a snowy balcony, Jerôme makes her choose between the family and herself. She chooses the latter, later receiving an especially brutal beating from K that makes her climax again. Marcel is sent to a foster home. Years later, Joe has regained pleasure, but her
genitalia are irreversibly damaged. Her new boss, knowing of her habits, demands she attend
sex addiction therapy. Joe becomes pregnant and seeks an abortion, but the doctor insists she speak to a counselor first. When this ends disastrously, Joe performs the procedure herself with several household implements and a wire hanger. In the present, Joe and Seligman argue about
abortion rights. Joe reluctantly attends therapy and attempts sobriety. During one meeting, she sees her younger self in the mirror, insults the other group members, and proclaims pride in her nymphomania before leaving. Feeling ostracized from "normal" society, Joe becomes a debt collector. She reminisces about a house call to a man she initially finds sexually unreadable. She ties him to a chair, strips him, and provokes him, ultimately gleaning that he is a repressed
paedophile and fellating him. She explains to Seligman that she empathized with his status as a sexual outcast, and lauds him for never acting on his desires. Joe's superior, L, suggests she groom P, the 15-year-old daughter of criminals. Joe is initially repulsed by the idea, but begins a sexual relationship with P after she turns 18, later inviting P to move in with her while hesitantly teaching P her job. During one round of debt collection, Joe realizes they are at a house belonging to Jerôme and tells P to perform the job alone to avoid being seen. After learning P is having an affair with Jerôme, Joe ambushes them in an alleyway and attempts to shoot them. Jerôme viciously beats Joe before having sex with P in front of her. P urinates on Joe before leaving. In the present, Seligman suggests Joe's experiences were fueled by differences in gender representation; her guilt and shame made her fight "like a man", ultimately "forgetting" to rack the gun because her human worth forbade her to kill someone. Joe finally feels content, having unburdened her story to someone she truly considers a friend. She vows to rid herself of her sexuality before going to sleep. Seligman attempts to rape Joe as she is unconscious, but Joe wakes up and reaches for the gun. Seligman attempts to justify himself, but Joe shoots him, grabs her things, and flees the apartment. ==Cast==