Widowed at the age of twenty, Madame Boissière is a real mother hen, excessively brooding over her two sons Robert and Claude. She spoiled the marriage of one and kept the other away from any female presence. The latter runs off and marries a girl from the mountains. When his brother dies, the couple agree to return to live with Madame Boissière, who tries to separate them.

Half Spirit, a young woman who's spent the past year handcuffed to a radiator by her husband, begins to hear the voice of a spider named Jimminy. She escapes from captivity and falls in love with Gil, a drug dealer traveling to swap drugs for plutonium. She follows him, afraid to approach. She is followed by Badfly, who pushes women off of ledges, convinced that they can fly; he unsuccessfully tries to kill her, then falls for her. Gil is also followed by Priest, a demonic Catholic father with a penchant for pain. The whole sordid tale is narrated by Half Spirit as she writes the tale on her naked body as she lies dying in a hospital.