Jessica Merrill, an intellectually precocious antisocial teen, shares her sensual journey to enlightenment in Invitation to Shangri-La. To please her mother who seemed eternally dissatisfied with her daughter, Jessica lands a job on her 18^th birthday with Shangri-La, an import store near the campus. Roger, the store manager immediately recognizes Jessica’s sharp wit and quiet kindnesses. He along with his lover, Charles, a former folk singer, invites her to visit them regularly after work in their apartment over the store.

Johnny, her coworker and son of the chain’s owner, lives for baseball and women. Each Friday after work, he asks Jessica to watch him play baseball the next afternoon in a local park. Since she witnesses girls parade across the store daily to flirt with him, she refuses to risk her fragile ego by dating him. Eventually, however, she agrees to watch him play his sport of choice. Once there, a lively red-headed Irishman repeatedly distracts her from the game. The redhead in question, Johnny’s widowed father, Sean Moran, CEO of Shangri-La, quickly introduces himself and calms her mortification by engaging her intellect.

In ensuing weeks, he invites Jessica for breakfast to discuss literature. Books became her best friends even before she stomped out of high school at the age of 16, so she feels as if she won the lottery. Although he ceased painting when his wife, Margie, died of cancer six years prior, he asks Jessica to model for him. Something in her reignites Sean’s aspirations. Jessica jumps at this opportunity.

While Sean sketches her, Jessica whirls into a spontaneous trance during which she throws off her robe. Since Margie and he were students of esoteric knowledge, Sean understands and soothes her embarrassment by calling her as a “natural mystic.” Thereafter each Sunday, they meet in the cause of art.

Eventually, Jessica blurts out her attraction to Sean which provokes him to confess how hard he had worked to maintain a careful distance from her although his heart was deeply involved. After Jessica confesses feeling only pain during her previous sexual encounters, he allows her to choose whether they will become lovers but warns that their liaison must be brief because of her age and his responsibilities. As much as he encourages her independence, he confides that she’s his Goddess ideal in human form. He fears losing their friendship through sex.

Undeterred by his warnings and desirous of a positive intimate experience, Jessica reads how-to-books on sex while Sean travels on a buying trip throughout Africa on behalf of Shangri-La. She also experiences seemingly realistic dreams where she watches Sean as he traverses the continent. Each ends with the sensation that she has fallen back into her body.

Upon his return, Jessica assertively performs her favorite sexual technique from her research. This sparks a marathon session of voluptuous bliss. Belatedly, Sean stipulates that her family and his must accept them as a couple, or their encounter would remain a once in a lifetime experience. Although Sean easily charms her parents into accepting them as a romantic couple, Jessica remains in dread of telling Johnny and his older brother. Her parents’ acceptance however allows them to continue as lovers until then.

During this interlude, Sean divulges that his art derives from the union of his Goddess, whom he credits for all he receives in life, and Axial ideals of education, stoicism and respect for Creation. While understanding all is one, he listens within for Divine Wisdom. Jessica acts the intellectual sponge to his explorations of spirituality and his thoughts on humanity’s attitudes toward sex.  

Margie had studied sacred sexual techniques from around the world and taught them to Sean who then in turn introduces them to Jessica. He credits Margie with prioritizing his life. While lost in a metaphysical tirade, Sean admits that Margie invested his capital to create a fund which Sean uses for what he calls, “Goddess work,” upon which he refuses to elaborate.

Days after Sean leaves on another buying trip, Charles begins coughing up blood, a sign to those who knew him that his lung cancer has reasserted itself. Roger rushes him to the hospital and remains by his side. Unable to contact Sean for advice, Jessica manages Shangri-La as well as she can, so Roger can care for his lover unencumbered by business worries. Barb, Shangri-La’s corporate bookkeeper, and Vicky, recently hired Christmas help, assists Jessica run the store smoothly.

When he returns, Sean recognizes her exhaustion and sends for his sons who had planned to return the following week for Thanksgiving. Although Jessica had dreaded this confrontation, Johnny accepts her relationship with Sean as logical since he knows the character of each well.

Phil, his older brother, remains concerned about the ethics involved in their relationship until Sean explains that Jessica is his soul mate. He recognized her as such in the ballpark that first Saturday afternoon. He goes on to explain about Jessica’s innate mystical abilities, most of which she was unaware.  Phil’s acceptance continues to be tempered by legalities, but he understands their relationship cannot be judged by societal norms.