The Mistress Contract opens with a document that a woman sent to her wealthy lover for his signature sometime in the 1980s. The contract establishes an exchange that she thinks fair: If he will provide adequate accommodations for her and cover her expenses, she will provide to him the following “mistress services” — all housekeeping duties and all sexual acts as requested, with suspension of historical, emotional, psychological disclaimers. For the duration of the Agreement, she will become his sexual property. Upon receipt of the document, he phoned her immediately to accept. For 20 years afterward, this extraordinary and unconventional couple recorded their conversations about their relationship, conversations that took place while traveling, over dinner, and even in bed. This book is the transcript of those tapes and a record of all they had to say about the arrangement, its power relations, its sexual politics.