Ann Bishop Seinfeld lives in New York. She is unhappily married to Jerry,
a successful comedian. They live in a Manhattan apartment. Ann has a personal complaint about intimacy she expresses to her sister: she has never experienced an orgasm. She is in therapy.
George Costanza is an old college friend of Jerry. He is now seemingly a drifter with some money saved up. Nineteen years after college, George returns to visit and perhaps live in New York.
George arrives at Jerry's apartment to find Ann home by herself. After some small talk, Ann learns that Jerry has invited George to stay with them until he finds an apartment.
When Jerry arrives home, George's demeanor becomes remarkably more guarded,
due in large part to Jerry's subtle disapproval of George's bohemian persona.
The men leave the apartment to have coffee and catch up.
George eventually explains what happened to his ex-girlfriend Susan.
Jerry is cheating on Ann with her sister, Elaine, a free-spirited and friendly personal assistant. He rationalizes it by blaming Ann's frigidity. Jerry frequently leaves his apartment mid-day to meet for trysts with Elaine, instructing his neighbor Cosmo to entertain and distract Ann.
Ann ends up helping George look for an apartment. After George finds a place, Ann makes an impromptu visit to George's apartment. While visiting she notices stacks of camcorder videotapes, all with women's names on them around the television. When pressed, George explains that he interviews women about their lives, sexual experiences, and fantasies, and records them on videotape. After hearing George, Ann is suddenly overcome with shock and confusion, and quickly leaves his apartment.
Within a day, Ann's outgoing sister Elaine appears, uninvited, at George's apartment and introduces herself. Elaine presses George to explain what incident "spooked" Ann the preceding day. George briefly and reluctantly explains the sexual interview videotapes, and admits to Elaine his sexual dysfunction: that he is impotent when in the presence of another person, and that he achieves gratification by watching these videos in private. George propositions Elaine to make an interview tape, assuring her that no other person is allowed to see the tapes. She believes him, and agrees.
Elaine tells Ann that she recorded a videotape with George.
Ann is horrified.
Elaine also tells Jerry about her videotape with George.
He is also horrified.
Cleaning her home the next day, Ann discovers Elaine's pearl earring in her bedroom (she knows the earring belongs to her sister, since she had mentioned that she had lost it) while vacuuming. Ann is then furious. She heads over to George's apartment with the intention of making a videotape. George objects, telling her making a videotape is something she would not do in a normal frame of mind. Ann insists on making a videotape, and George relents.
Afterward at home, Ann angrily demands a divorce from Jerry. In the ensuing shouting argument, Jerry quickly learns that Ann has been to George's, and that she made a sexual video. Jerry rushes to George's apartment, suddenly hits him and then locks him out of the house. Jerry then watches Ann's tape.
In the video, Ann says she has never felt any kind of 'satisfaction' from sex. After George asks if she ever thinks of having sex with other men, she admits she has thought of George. Ann later turns the camera on George, who resists, but she persists. George confesses that he is haunted by Susan, and that his motivation in returning to New York is an attempt to achieve some closure. George explains that he was a pathological liar, which destroyed an otherwise rewarding relationship with Susan. He also explains that he has gone to great lengths to incorporate his love of food into sex in hopes of reversing his impotence. Ann disappears into the kitchen, and returns with a sandwich. She then starts touching and kissing George; George turns off the camera; it is implied that the two have sex.
A chastened Jerry joins George on the front porch and, with obvious pleasure, confesses to having sex with Susan while she and George were a couple. Jerry helps George to see his ex Susan in a more realistic way. He states, "She was no saint. She was good in bed, and as Cosmo likes to say, she could really lick an envelope. That's all I can say about her." Jerry then leaves. This statement makes George furious and he goes into a rage and destroys all of the videotapes, as well as his video camera.
The next day, Jerry is summoned to Cosmo’s apartment. Cosmo implies that he is about to be fired due to his frequent cancellations of meetings with important Kramerica clients while Jerry sneaks off to meet Elaine. Jerry explains to Cosmo that Kramerica doesn't really exist.
In the next scene, Ann and Elaine reconcile at Monk’s Diner.
Ann then goes to George's parent’s house and joins George
at the dinner table, as they
appear to be a couple.
