Genly has been sent by the Ekumen to bring the world of Winter into the Ekumen as a trading partner. Winter was apparently populated long ago by some gene hacking experiments. The people of winter are neuter for most of the month, but then can go into heat (paraphrasing) and can be either male or female for a few days of uncontrollable sex. The desire for sex is so strong that society have developed Kemmer (heat) houses where people can go and hook up with someone else that is also in kemmer. Genly, is and alien and always male, so they look at him as some kind of pervert.
The plot of the novel, while not bad although somewhat slow paced, takes a back seat to the effects of a never ending winter and gender non identification would have on a people. For instance, A king's heir must be born from the king. The king has to give birth to the heir. Also, because the planet has no flying birds native, the people have no concept of flight. It is a very interesting thought experiment.
The books downside is that all of this history and world building requires a lot of exposition, most is inserted as part of the dialogue, but it slows the story down quite a bit. I will admit that the book had a tendancy to put me to sleep at some points as it was almost like reading a text book on the people of Winter's culture. It was a slow, dense read but quite enjoyable.
I compared it to a text book and maybe it is; a text book on world building. If you are going to build a world, this is the kind of attention to detail that you need to employ. Maybe you don't have to reveal every detail about your planet, but preparing those details and knowing them can make the story flow better and seem less like things are coming out of no where. For example I bring you the many ways of travel in the Wonderful World of Harry Potter, every year it seamed that there was a new way to get around that everyone used. First there was the flu, then port keys are all the fad and the only way to travel, then you have people aspirating all over the place with hardly a mention of Flu's or portkeys as actual transportation. It is obvious that Rowling hadn't really planned this out.
Anyway, it was good book with great world building. If you are old enough to stick with this book you are old enough for the content which isn't graphic at all. I can see why this one is a classic. It won the Hugo and Nebula.
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