All in all, Jim has a good life: He's a successful architect, he and his wife Mary are in love, and they have a healthy, well behaved child. The only thing more Jim could ask for is for his wife to be a little more open about sex; all she ever wants is soft, gentle lovemaking, while Jim would like to be a little more wild once in a while. Mary sees the problem as being on Jim's end; she thinks that they're examples of his personal shortcomings and that his sexual desires are abnormal and selfish. When she begins withholding sex from Jim, his frustration builds and begins to affect his whole life; he keeps renting porn films, fails to get an account at work, and ends up trying to get satisfaction by spying on his neighbors with binoculars.