In this report, we describe the magnetic resonance imaging appearance of tubo-ovarian abscess (TOA) in a patient who underwent diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of the pelvis and subsequent histologic analysis. The content of the TOA was markedly high signal intensity relative to the surrounding tissue on DWI, and it showed low signal intensity on the apparent diffusion coefficient map; these findings were consistent with those of published reports on brain and liver abscesses.