In a Manhattan studio, Emanuelle shoots a nude photo shoot. There, model Janet talks about her boyfriend Tony, a virgin philosopher who thinks sex is the root of all of modern society's evils. She complains that they do nothing but talk. In her car, Emanuelle gets hijacked by Tony, who threatens to kill her because of her sexual immorality. Emanuelle finds out about his sexual childhood trauma, argues for the cleanliness of sex, and starts to fellate him. Panic-stricken, Tony runs away.
At her apartment, Emanuelle's boyfriend Bill plays with Tony's gun while she prepares to leave for a meeting. Craving sex, he playfully threatens to commit suicide with the gun and gets Emanuelle to postpone and have sex with him.
Planning to investigate billionaire Van Darren, Emanuelle visits a boxing gymnasium, where Joe, a former fighter turned trainer after being replaced as Van Darren's bodyguard, provides her with false papers. Van Darren's harem consists of twelve zodiacal women, the only current opening being for a Virgo.
At Van Darren's villa, Emanuelle infiltrates the harem. At the pool, she joins two of the women for a lesbian underwater game. Investigating the stables, she finds a weapons stash labeled "horse shoes". A guest there, the Duke of Elba Alfredo Elvize, has a monogamous attitude, unlike his host. In the evening, everyone watches a woman give a hand job to a horse. Alone with Van Darren, Emanuelle ridicules him for his power-centered and money-centered approach to sex. In the game room, she beats him at poker dice, taking a lot of money from him. She flees in Elvize's car and is invited to his Venetianpalazzo.
There, the duke catches his wife with another man, and in turn, sleeps with Emanuelle. When his wife joins them, Emanuelle leaves, happily reuniting the couple. Emanuelle's boyfriend Bill later pays her a visit, the couple have sex during a rehearsal of the Spring concerto. At a party in the mansion, Emanuelle learns of a Caribbean island resort which offers beautiful men to sex-starved women. She also discovers the duke's hidden stash of forged paintings. When a pop out cake is opened, the party turns into an orgy, and Emanuelle takes pictures.
Back at the Manhattan studio, Janet reveals that sex is all that Tony thinks of now. Alone again, Emanuelle has phone sex with Bill.
Emanuelle poses as a client to infiltrate the island resort. She takes pictures of the couples and their sexual role plays. One of the women watches an 8 mmsnuff film during sex, which shocks Emanuelle. Her cover is blown when a male sex worker recognizes her from one of her journals. She escapes by seducing, drugging and raping the resort's lesbian director and getting into the cab of the chauffeur with whom she came. They have sex in the car.
The trail of the snuff film leads her to a US senator in Washington, whom Emanuelle seduces. Presenting himself as a conservative patriot, he invites her to his studio. There, she convinces him of showing her his snuff film collection. Enamored, the senator has sex with her and drugs her drink. Emanuelle goes into a drug trip in which she travels with him to South America and witnesses torture and rape with her own eyes. In the morning, she promises the senator to visit him again.
Emanuelle does not know if what she saw was real until her editor shows her pictures she took. Emanuelle sees it as the scoop of the century, but the editor tells her he has received orders from the top not to publish them. Angered, Emanuelle decides to take an indefinite break from her job.
Vacationing in an island with Bill, Emanuelle gets caught by a native tribe and is to become the local chieftain's twelfth wife. Bill confesses he has sold her for a shell necklace and beer. After the ceremony, a US film crew appears. The tribe are used as actors. Not wanting to take part in a film, Bill and Emanuelle elope, running along the beach in the sunset.
