Marian McAlpin, the narrator, has just settled into the routines of her post-graduate Toronto life. Every morning, Marian makes herself coffee and a soft-boiled egg in the apartment she shares with her flirtatious, chaotic roommate, Ainsley. The women try to avoid their self-righteous landlady (the lady down below) before taking the bus to their jobs, staring at the advertisements in silence. Then, Marian heads to work, where she edits surveys on behalf of canned rice pudding business or sanitary product companies, spending her breaks with a trio of young women she dubs “the office virgins.” Finally, when her workday is done, Marian visits with her clean-cut boyfriend Peter or her friend Clara, who is about to have her third baby.
One day, Marian is conducting a survey about a beer commercial. One of her interview subjects is a pale, mysterious English PhD student named Duncan. Duncan tells Marian conflicting stories about his family, his past, and his roommates Trevor and Fish—and his lack of consistency is both maddening and strangely fascinating to Marian.
Around this time, Marian and Clara’s friend from college, Leonard Slank, returns to Toronto after a stint in the British TV industry. Though neither Clara nor Marian knows the whole story, it is clear that Len left England because of a saga with a much-younger girl. Ainsley, having decided that she wants to have a baby to fulfill her “deepest femininity,” becomes interested in Len as a potential father.
Peter’s best friend from college gets married, sending him into a tailspin: it seems his days hunting and drinking with his bachelor buddies are over. To cheer Peter up, Marian arranges drinks with Len—which Ainsley crashes, dressed as a teenager. While Len and Peter talk about cameras (and while Len and Ainsley flirt with each other), Marian drinks, feeling anxious. Almost without realizing it, Marian starts to cry. As soon as the group leaves the bar, Marian takes off, running from Peter and her friends in a panic. When Peter catches Marian, he is angry and insists on driving her home.
Marian at first resists being driven by Peter, though once it starts to rain Marian reluctantly gets in his car. As the couple fights, Peter drives recklessly, crashing into someone’s lawn in a way that Marian finds disturbing, but Peter finds hysterically funny. As lightning flashes, Peter proposes marriage to Marian, surprising them both.
A few weeks later, Ainsley is still hard at work on her plan to seduce Len while Marian’s family has started eagerly planning her wedding. For Marian’s part, she remains focused on her routine, making her eggs and bringing her laundry to the laundromat. By chance, Marian runs into Duncan while doing her laundry. As Duncan watches his clothes go through their spin cycle, he smokes cigarettes and complains about his graduate studies (“words are starting to lose their meaning,” he confesses). Instinctively, before she leaves, Marian kisses Duncan, surprised by the thinness of his body.
The narrative shifts into the third person. Clara has her baby, and Ainsley successfully seduces Len, using Marian’s bedroom to consummate the encounter (much to Marian’s dismay). Marian continues to see Duncan, too, running into him at a late-night movie and then going to his apartment to help him iron things. Every time they see each other, Duncan complains about the monotony of life (everything is “production-consumption,” he sighs), and he implores Marian to have sex with him. Duncan seems unconcerned when Marian informs him of her engagement.
On a date with Peter, Marian hallucinates that her steak is still alive, imagining the cow it once came from. Unable to forget this image, Marian loses the ability to eat beef. Soon after, the same thing happens with pork and chicken.
Ainsley has successfully gotten pregnant. When Len learns of the news, he is distraught, At Marian’s apartment, Len laments his plight. He recalls a breakfast in his youth, where he saw an unhatched chick still alive in an egg. Marian then also loses the ability to eat eggs.
Marian begins to dissociate further, ceasing to go to work or clean her apartment. At the office Christmas party, while Marian marvels at the “continual flux” of eating and talking that defines her coworkers’ lives, her boss Mrs. Bogue informs the rest of the company that Marian will have to leave her job now that she is engaged. While shopping for a dinner party with Peter and Clara, Marian panics, unable to pick between the packaging for various products. Later that night, as she makes a salad, Marian loses the ability to eat carrots and other vegetables.
Marian decides to go to Duncan’s apartment for dinner, though she nervously informs Duncan there is almost nothing she can eat anymore. While Trevor prepares an elaborate meal, Fish goes on at length about his thesis, which has something to do with the symbols of sexuality in Alice in Wonderland. Covertly, Marian does her best to toss the meatballs on her plate to Duncan so as to avoid eating them, a scheme that Trevor eventually catches on to.
Peter hosts an engagement party, and Marian decides (at the last minute) to invite Duncan, Trevor, Fish, and the office virgins. Marian hasn’t eaten all day, so she quickly gets drunk at the party. As Peter walks around taking pictures, Marian sees her fiancée as a hunter, using his camera as a weapon. Duncan and his roommates arrive, though Duncan leaves as soon as he takes in the scene. While Ainsley and Len get into a public fight, Marian chases after Duncan, reuniting with him at the laundromat.
Marian finds Duncan and agrees to have sex with him, so they find a rundown motel. At breakfast the next morning, Marian realizes there is no longer any food she can eat. Duncan goes on a walk with Marian through the snow, but eventually he tells her wants to be left alone.
Marian goes home, distraught. Suddenly, she is inspired to a bake a woman-shaped cake—the titular edible woman. When Peter arrives, angry about Marian’s disappearance the night before, Marian serves him the cake and breaks off their engagement, telling Peter that he was trying to “destroy” her. After Peter leaves, Marian digs into the cake. Ainsley arrives home as Marian eats and is horrified, declaring that Marian is “rejecting [her] femininity!” Marian laughs this off and finishes her slice. In the narrative’s final scene, Duncan comes over and he eats the last slice of the “edible woman” cake while Marian looks on with pride.
