Nadia opens as Max Klein, a brash loner and womanizer, abandons his academic career to pursue and confront his parents, a mother who abandoned him when he was a tod-dler, and a father who has refused to acknowledge his existence. Derailed by a sexual misadventure with Iris Shelton, whom he abandons-and who secretly follows him-Max travels to California, where both parents live, and meets Nadia Varlova. She is Russian, young, intelligent, sexy, and a former (or current?) lover of Benjamin Farber, Max's father. The coincidence is irresistible (though puzzling). Max uses Nadia to get to Farber, even as Nadia-who is in league with Farber and Iris-plans to seduce and humiliate Max.