In desperate financial straits, aspiring writer Genevieve Carter takes a job as a personal assistant, only to discover that the middle-aged woman she will be working for is none other than her literary heroine, Anne Tournier. Genevieve is at first ecstatic at gaining an introduction to London literary life and Anne's many famous friends. However, her new employer expects rather more from her assistant than was implied in the advert and Genevieve gradually becomes enmeshed in a web of sexual intrigue and experimentation with men and women. Then, by accident, she learns that she has been cast as the heroine of an erotic novel that Anne is writing.

Determined to get her own story out first, Genevieve starts a blog where she relates her sexual liaisons to a growing and appreciative readership. Lured by the prospect of a lucrative publishing deal, a competition ensues between mistress and apprentice, one which will push Genevieve to her artistic and erotic limits.