Lou Salome, a stunning young Russian woman, is in search of an authentic life. To be true to herself, the twenty-one-year-old will not have sex or marry, refusing to become dependent on a lover or husband. Today her decision sounds reasonable, but in 1882 in Imperial Germany, women sacrificed their own ambitions for the good of husband, family and fatherland. In this Novel of Self-Absorption the misogynist, Friedrich Nietzsche, is set on marrying his "soul twin" Lou. He schemes how to steal her from his competitor and best friend, Paul Ree. All the while, these dysfunctional characters struggle to overcome sexual tension, societal taboos, and subconscious desires. By the time Lou settles in Berlin, she has left a trail of wreckage in her wake The intelligentsia here knows about her reputation as femme fatale. They adore this unconventional thinker, writer and essayist who knows Nietzsche like nobody else. Men try to seduce her, but Lou remains faithful only to herself, even after Fred Andreas, an Iranian scholar, blackmails her into marriage.