Noted
psychologist Dr. George C. Chapman, his assistant Paul Radford and their staff are flying around the country conducting an anonymous sex survey of American women. They come to Los Angeles looking for volunteers in an affluent community called Briarwood. In a speech to the Briarwood Women's Club, Chapman says that “Too many women suffer from too little knowledge about a subject that occupies a major and crucial part of their lives...My associates and I believe that through our findings these women will come to realize that sex is decent, clean and dignified.“ The turnout at the club is lower than expected – 82 instead of 150 women–because Dr. Jonas is campaigning against the project. He tells Radford that he deplores the fact that all their research and writing is devoted to the physical act. “This is separating sex from affection, warmth, tenderness, devotion.” Dr. Jonas insists that by not discussing love at all, they allow people to believe – incorrectly – that the data on the physical act are the way to measure love. “People read the digits, make the comparisons, and then label themselves either normal or abnormal.” Dr. Jonas is also very concerned that the interviews, with their probing questions, may stir up trouble for some women – with no follow-through to help them. Radford later tells Chapman that Jonas has some good points. The film follows four of the participants: Kathleen Barclay is a young widow who thinks she is
frigid because, not long before he died, her husband told her she was. She breaks down in tears during the interview (conducted by Radford), drops her purse and flees. When Radford returns her wallet, she recognizes his voice. She becomes distraught, protesting that she “is not one of his pathological cases.” However, she and Radford fall in love, and she comes to terms with her fears. Teresa Harnish, a vivacious, happily married woman, recognizes her interviewer as Dr. Chapman. She records everything to play back for her husband. Listening, she suddenly thinks they may be abnormal – abnormally boring. Her pursuit of brawny, young football player Ed Kraski ends in farce. When he finally understands what she wants, he grabs her eagerly, and her fantasy dissolves in his clumsy, bone-crushing embrace. “You can't toss me around like a football,” she declares and runs for home. Sarah Garnell is a middle-aged wife and mother whose lover, the young director of the local
little theater, Fred Linden, is supposedly separated from his wife. Her husband, Frank, thinks all is well. When she is interviewed, she classifies their sexual relationship as “tolerable”. They have sex every Saturday. She describes her affair, weeping. The subsequent questions make her think for the first time about the future, and she eventually decides to leave her husband. She leaves a note and her wedding ring for Frank and goes to Fred's boat to find Fred's wife, waiting. Fred won't see her. Sarah goes back to her stricken husband, who tells her that he meant “for better or for worse” and returns her ring. Divorcée Naomi Shields is a promiscuous
alcoholic who may be suffering from what is currently referred to as
hypersexuality. When we first see her, she seduces a stranger, water-delivery guy Bob Jensen. Wash Dillon, an unsavory
jazz musician who lives down the block, takes her to a rundown apartment and they have sex. When she wakes up, Dillon allows his friends to gang rape her, then dumps her in her driveway. When the time comes for her interview, she first says that she had sex with many in her early teens, then that it was not until after she was 21. She cheated on her husband constantly. The marriage ended when he found her with a 20-year-old neighbor. She now wants “to crawl back to the musician.” She attempted suicide after the rape, but swallowed too many pills and threw up. She goes home, calls Dillon and tells him she'll leave the door open. This time, she takes just enough pills. When she is found dead, Dr. Jonas blames the interview as a contributing factor. Radford says she was lost long ago. Dr. Chapman and Radford are reviewing the data from the Briarwood interviews. They pause to reflect on the reassuring statistics showing that the vast majority of American marriages are happy. Radford shares the news: He and Kathy are engaged. ==Cast==