O is the lover of Rene and to prove her love for him she agrees to accompany him to a country retreat, thus beginning the story of her submission as proof of her love. The country retreat has a range of women who have been through various stages of the process of learning the submissive behaviour expected of them and they assist O in settling in to this strange environment. Part of the induction includes parading around semi-naked, being unable to look men in the eye or to talk to them, being whipped for real or imagined transgressions and submitting to a variety of sexual encounters instigated at the whim of the men running the retreat.
O finds the learning process challenging but enjoyable and willingly learns her new role as a means of pleasing Rene. She takes the submissiveness even further when Rene reveals that he wants her to unquestioningly accept orders from his companion Sir Stephan. O accepts and despite some initial misgivings ends up totally under the command of Sir Stephan and prepared to do his every bidding. During the process of her ongoing submission being fine-tuned she even ends up being branded and eventually she and Sir Stephan end up falling in love to the exclusion of Rene. The film ends with her branding Sir Stephan with an O.
There are plenty of people who would watch this movie with an eye on the art of the story telling or the great settings in expensive houses and others who would be totally focussed on the psychological elements of the willing submissiveness adopted by O. There are plenty who would simply watch it for the parade of half-naked women, the whippings, the hetrosexual sex and the lesbian sex. So there is certainly something in there for most viewers.
I presume we are supposed to examine our own reactions to the new life adopted by O to see whether it shocks us entirely or whether we simply see it as a story that may or may not impact at all. I must admit I fell in to the latter category. I did not get involved in O?s story greatly as I have no comprehension of how anyone, male or female, would give themselves so willingly to such a group of people intent on their own pleasure. To me the idea of freely giving up the power to determine her own life was a very odd choice for O to make. She started it to show her love for Rene, left him without even really thinking about it all and ended up falling for Sir Stephan, stopping to bed the model Jacqueline along the way. While she was asked at many intervals whether she wanted to stop, O always chose to go on. Strange girl I would have thought and not one I would run across every day.
Back in 1975 it caused a bit of a furore when released and it still has the power to shock. But it seems a story so far removed from any reality I know that it is almost an irrelevancy. I leave it up to you to make your mind up.

THE EXTRAS

There is a copy of the film trailer which has only one spoken word in it ? Obey. This sums up the plot quite well and the wall-to-wall naked women would surely bring a few extras into the cinema.

CONCLUSION

O decides to show her love for Rene by choosing to learn how to become a submissive sex-slave. She eventually falls in love with Rene?s companion Sir Stephan in between the whippings and the various sexual encounters. When the boys say ?Obey? she knows exactly what to do.