Fashion model Emanuelle is experiencing psychotic freakout every time she has sex. Haunted by memories of sexual abuse from the men in her life, including her father, she turns to Dr. Gardner, who offers help while she resides at his mental health center.

Count Karnstein sends for a doctor to help his sick daughter Laura. Her nurse believes she is possessed by the spirit of a dead ancestor, Carmilla. A young woman becomes intrigued by the mysterious deaths surrounding Laura after a carriage accident outside the castle forces her to stay. They become close friends until Laura becomes convinced the spirit of Carmilla is forcing her to kill.

In her first onscreen adventure, journalist/photographer Mae Jordan (known to her readers as "Emanuelle") travels to Africa on assignment. Questions of her own racial and sexual identity come to a head as she observes the troubled marriage of her hosts, Ann and Gianni Danieli. Matters are complicated further when Emanuelle finds herself in affairs with both of them, after which she flees Africa, only to be persued by Gianni, who had earlier rejected her and ridiculed her advances.