Paola is in a deteriorating marriage with Bernard. After they move to an island in the Caribbean, she befriends a local woman named Stella who introduces her to the cult of the serpent god Djamballà. She, first despising the rituals of the cult, soon realizes that they represent the passion and lust lacking in her married life. At a ritual where reality is interspersed within fantasy, she has sex with a strong black man Djamballà and she identifies with the serpent god himself. After her husband's sudden death, she invites her ex-fiance Tony to the island to start a new life but understands that Djamballà has become her sole obsession. She becomes a handmaid consecrated to his love.