THE book is told from the perspective of a 22-year-old college student Anastasia "Ana” Steele who, while doing a favour for her friend Katherine Kavanagh, meets 27-year-old businessman Christian Grey and they develop a mutual attraction.

After a longwinded courtship, they eventually become involved in a more physical relationship. Initially, their physical interactions are limited to regular sexual play. Ana, who has little sexual experience, finds Christian irresistible and through him reaches a sexual awakening. While the depiction of Christian Grey as some sort of superhuman can be perfectly acceptable as a woman’s fantasy, his characterization makes him quite unlikable. Not only is Christian emotionally distant, rude and gloomy, he is manipulative and borderline psychotic in stalking Ana. And for a man in charge of a huge company, he seems to spend little time actually working.