Egyptian psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi visits a woman named Firdaus in Qanatir Prison, where she is about to be executed for murder. Firdaus narrates her life story.
Firdaus spends her early childhood in a rural village. Her father is terribly abusive and deceitful, though every week at the mosque he pretends to be religiously devout. Firdaus has little memory of her mother, though she knows that her mother had her circumcised when she was still too young to understand what it meant—though not before her first sexual experience with a young boy named Mohammadain. Firdaus’s uncle routinely sexually abuses her, but she still likes being with him because he teaches her to read and write.
When Firdaus’s parents die, her uncle takes her with him to Cairo and enrolls her in school. She enjoys her life with him and excels as a student. However, after Firdaus marries an upper-class wife he becomes cool and distant, and abandons Firdaus to a secondary boarding school. Firdaus thrives here as well, though her painful childhood troubles her. One night, her teacher Miss Iqbal gives her comfort, and as Firdaus holds her hand she feels a muted stir of sexual pleasure, though she does not understand what this feeling means. Firdaus expects that Miss Iqbal feels it too, but her teacher never recognizes it or pays Firdaus special attention, which disappoints Firdaus.
Although Firdaus graduates secondary school as one of the top students in the country, her uncle refuses to send her to university, since his niece studying alongside young men would reflect poorly on him as a public figure. Instead, at his wife’s suggestion, he marries Firdaus to Sheikh Mahmoud, a wretched old man who is over 60 years old, while Firdaus is only 18. Before the wedding, Firdaus briefly tries to run away, but realizes that the world is too frightening for her as a woman. Sheikh Mahmoud routinely beats and rapes Firdaus, and she learns to withdraw from herself, mentally disassociating from her own body to endure the abuse.
Firdaus runs to her uncle for shelter, but he is unsympathetic, so she runs away again. A seemingly kind named Bayoumi takes her in and treats her well for several months. However, when Firdaus decides she wants to work and live independently, Bayoumi beats and rapes her and starts keeping her locked in his house all day, pimping her out to his friends at night. A neighbor helps Firdaus escape, and within a day she meets Sharifa, a wealthy woman who brings Firdaus to live with her in her lavish apartment. Sharifa teaches Firdaus that she is beautiful and can make men pay anything she wants for her body. However, Sharifa also pimps Firdaus out to men and keeps all of the money for herself. Firdaus eventually runs away from Sharifa as well, and beings working as an independent prostitute. She learns how to entice men and demand massive fees, and grows wealthy enough to have her own apartment, servants, and a cook. However, when one of Firdaus’s friends tells her that she is “not respectable,” she decides to leave prostitution and try to build a respectable life for herself.
Firdaus takes a low-wage job for an industrial company and lives in a tiny, dirty apartment. Even so, she feels free. However, after several years, Firdaus realizes that the company executives pressure their female employees to have sex with them for favors or promotions. She decides that women in lawful professions are given as little respect by men as prostitutes are, but a prostitute can make a better living. Meanwhile, Firdaus briefly falls in love with Ibrahim, a union leader at her company who seems principled and noble. They have a brief affair, during which she feels so in love that she tells him every secret of her life and her past. She has sex with him willingly, for her own pleasure. However, Ibrahim suddenly betrays her and announces his engagement to the company chairman’s daughter, which will benefit his career. This breaks Firdaus’s heart, and she realizes that men like Ibrahim trade tenderness for sex, which is little different from those who buy sex with money.
Firdaus returns to living as a prostitute and making good money. However, a pimp named Marzouk manages to take control of her through his contacts in the police and the courts. He starts taking the majority of her income. When Firdaus decides to leave Marzouk, he tries to stop her, but she recognizes fear in his eyes. When Marzouk strikes her, she strikes him back, then stabs him to death with his own knife. Firdaus realizes that she can act against men and has nothing to fear; she can say and do as she truly feels. Immediately after, an Arab prince solicits Firdaus and pays her 3,000 pounds. Midway through sex, Firdaus refuses to continue and shreds the prince’s money in front of him. She tells him that all men are criminals and says she ought to kill the prince where he stands, since he is insignificant and corrupt. When she strikes him, the prince believes her and screams for the police. The police arrest her as a murderer, though Firdaus knows they are really just afraid of a woman who is bold enough to speak the “savage” truth. They throw her in jail, where she now awaits her execution.
Saadawi listens to Firdaus finish her story. After she finishes, the two women sit in silence until men take Firdaus away to execute her. Although Firdaus is dead, her voice remains in Saadawi’s head long after, and she realizes that she feels ashamed of her own fear and weakness compared to Firdaus’s courage.
