THE HAPPY HOOKER

As prostitutes are arrested in New York, a flashback begins to the life of one of them, a Dutch secretary Xaviera Hollander who moved to New York in hopes of marrying her fiancé Carl, whom she met while visiting her sister in South Africa.

Observing how Carl does not help her take her bags off the airplane and his increasingly long morning routine and primping, Xaviera grows concerned he is not the man she thought he was. Her suspicions are confirmed when his mother insults her over dinner. Xaviera offers him a choice of her or his mother, and he picks his mother.

Xaviera finds work at the Dutch Embassy as a translator and secretary. She is asked on a date by Frenchman Yves, and she quickly falls in love with him and his extravagant lifestyle as Yves has made a small fortune as a consultant for large corporations and small countries.

Yves announces that he must leave as he has been summoned by the king of a Middle Eastern country. Xaviera breaks down crying. He hands her a large envelope containing cash. Although it makes her feel like a prostitute, she realizes that this may be her calling in life because she loves sex and money. She starts meeting up with Yves' friends.

Xaviera prospers as a prostitute until a corrupt police officer takes her money and tries to rape her. She goes to work at a local bordello with a madam who offers her a 50/50 split. Xaviera decides that she can do better on her own, so she leaves to open her own bordello 10 blocks away. After a while, she is the most successful madam in New York City and buys out her former madam's business.

All is well until the corrupt cop sees her and instigates a raid, sending her to jail. Xaviera's attorney bails her out of jail and sets her up with a friend of his who is coming in from Montreal.

After building a successful bordello, Xaviera is arrested in a police raid instigated by a corrupt cop, but is bailed out and introduced to a new opportunity by her attorney.

The ending underscores Xaviera’s resilience and adaptability: despite setbacks from both law enforcement and the criminal underworld, she lands on her feet and remains open to new possibilities. The film closes the loop on her journey from vulnerability to self-assured businesswoman, framing her story as one of survival and reinvention in a city that thrives on both.