Widowed now for six years, Jeanne Dielman lives in a one-bedroom inner city Brussels flat with her teen-aged son Sylvain Dielman. She never really loved her husband and has no intention of ever remarrying, seeing it more of a chore of getting used to someone than ever missing emotional love. Most of the time, she tends to her household duties with a certain meticulousness and fastidiousness, but also with a definite routine. This attitude extends to the way she treats Sylvain, which is more as caregiver than loving mother. Included within her daily routine is looking after her neighbor's infant son while the mother runs her errands for the day and turning tricks with a small stable of regular clients in the apartment while Sylvain is at school. A few small changes to her routine over a thirty-six hour period culminates with something she's never experienced with one of her clients, which threatens what she knows her life to be. She has to decide how that incident will affect her psyche.—Huggo