The story starts with many musings on loneliness as it traces the life of a sickly man who later turns out to be the Andalusian Hebrew poet Solomon ibn Gabirol. In an attempt to assuage his loneliness and ease his pain, he seeks out carpenters to make a golem wife for him out of an orange tree. Solomon uses the golem for sex, housework, and feeds her his poetry. But the golem gains more consciousness than Solomon expected she would. Eventually it is found out that he has been keeping this golem with him and several holy men come to his home to investigate whether this is a sin he needs to be punished for. The golem is bound to Solomon to defend him and kills the holy men at his request. In the midst of doing so, she suddenly gives birth to a golem child of her own. Solomon is briefly aghast before his sickness overpowers him and he dies as well. The golem, now with the name Qasmūna, disposes of the bodies and sets out to begin her new life and seek revenge on behalf of the carpenter who made her.