After trying to commit suicide after rejection by the handsome Comte de Guébriand, the still very young Marquise du Châtelet gradually gets back on her feet through the kindness of the Duchesse de Saint Pierre, a libertine well into her fifties. In the Duchesse's salon she meets the famous Voltaire and immediately beds him. Much to the great displeasure of Madame du Deffand, one of Paris' movers and shakers and a rather viperish sort. The liaison doesn't last however, and Emilie is soon hankering after an attractive young brain, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis. He rejects her advances however. So she retreats to lick her wounds to her Château de Cirey, where Voltaire, under the threat of royal imprisonment, has taken shelter. And the miracle happens, Voltaire unwinds and learns what pleasure means in the arms of this passionate young woman.
