Walking home from work one night, Thana, a mute seamstress in New York City's Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thana bludgeons this second assailant to death with an iron. She then keeps his .45 caliber M1911A1 pistol, dismembers the burglar's body, puts the pieces into plastic garbage bags and gradually disposes of them in various locations throughout the city. She begins to have frequent nightmares and hallucinations of the first assailant stalking her, and her mental stability begins to dim. Thana is noticed by a man while she is disposing of one of the bagged body parts; retrieving the bag, he chases and frightens her. Fearing another sexual assault, she fatally shoots him. This event furthers her impulse for vengeance. Gradually, Thana transforms her appearance to bee a more and more seductive bait, and sets out to kill any man who annoys her. Near the end of the film, she dons a nun's habit and red lipstick to attend a Halloween party with her boss and co-workers. Her boss tries to take advantage of her and is killed; Thana then begins a shooting spree and targets all the men present. Finally she is stabbed by a female colleague.

影片是亚西西的嘉勒的传记片，亚西西的嘉勒是意大利圣徒，亚西西的方济各最早的追随者之一。她担任亚西西的方济各所创立的，属于方济各会传统的女性修会贫穷修女会的第一任院长。在她去世后，该修会命名为嘉勒隐修修女会。