Theresa "Terry" Dunn, a young woman living in New York City, leads a double life: by day she is a devoted schoolteacher, but by night she cruises singles bars.

Prior to these events, which the book details, Theresa is a child suffering from ugly-duckling syndrome, followed by an ordeal as an adult in college in which she is engaged in a committed relationship with a married man who is using her as a companion.

"[2] Invited by Nora Ephron to contribute to a special women's issue of Esquire magazine, Rossner wrote an article about a real-life murder that had sparked her interest, that of schoolteacher Roseann Quinn, who had been brutally slain in January 1973 by a man that she had purportedly picked up in a singles bar.

Carol Eisen Rinzler, in The New York Times, said the book was "a complex and chilling portrait of a woman's descent into hell... full of insight and intelligence and illumination.

[citation needed] In 2012, the novel was adapted as Goodbar, a "staged concept album" by the band Bambi and the performing arts group Waterwell.