After a prologue at an exotic dance club with homicidal strippers, we're introduced to an idealistic grad student, Mary, who has just finished a successful internship for a female senator. Her political future is bright. However, Mary discovers she's pregnant. Her friend, Beth, suggests an abortion. Though she doesn't want the baby, Mary is Catholic and unsure of how best to proceed. Mary's boyfriend, Zack, is unaware of the pregnancy.

At the end of summer, Mary, Beth, Zack, and the insecure Iris all share a ride back to Chicago. When their car is stolen, they are picked up by a group of four students from a nearby women's academy who take them to their isolated campus. Once there, they discover the academy is a "girl's only" school emphasizing women's studies, business, political science, and genetics. The ringleader, Judith, and her friends isolate Mary, Beth, and Iris from each other and all but banish Zack to a guesthouse. They start working on the women in different ways, making Iris feel attractive and popular, speaking of "female power returned" and emphasizing political change to Mary who is confused by her pregnancy, her strained relationship with Zack, as well as her blossoming friendship with Judith.

Soon, Mary discovers that the academy is a front for a doomsday cult, indoctrinating women into their apocalyptic sect and then sending them out into the world to strip men of power and status and enslave them. Slowly, Mary begins to realize the cultists will do anything to fulfill their dogma including murder. Mary then must choose her path: join the cultists or fight them, before they make her choice for her.