An awkward but intelligent young man makes part of his living writing pornographic novels, easing his loneliness by immersing himself in his work, and living the lives of his characters in his imagination. A change of publisher leads to an encounter with a lovely, confident and experienced woman, who soon reveals herself to be a professional dominatrix. In the course of a single lunchtime she persuades him to become her slave, and in that short time, his life is changed utterly. In her world there are no trial or probationary periods, no safe words, no limitations on her power over him and her ownership of his body. He is whipped on his first evening in bondage, harnessed to a cart on his second day, and driven like a pony on his third. Although at first she uses him only at weekends, when he's away from her she still has the means of keeping him under full control.
When she feels she'd trained him adequately, she begins to involve him in her work, which includes confining, punishing and interrogating prisoners for much more powerful masters and mistresses. Their sufferings help to bring him to him the reality of his position; the irrevocability and perfection of his servitude. She takes him to a slave auction, where he's exposed to public view, naked and restrained, for the very first time. For both him and his mistress, the occasion is a life-changing experience, and they return home with new assignments and an addition to the household; a slavegirl who has experienced the terrible rigours of bondage as a painmaiden in a great European house, where she and her family have paid the price for their father's crimes.