A forty-year-old divorced postal worker named Irena (Maria Chwalibóg), who lives on the outskirts of Wroslaw in Solidarity-era Poland, has a fairly miserable existence. Only her eight-year-old son lights up her world. Irena meets a younger man and begins a love affair, but hope for a new beginning shatters as the tale turns from bleak observation to almost Hitchcockian suspense. A Woman Alone was Holland’s last film before emigrating from Poland. Completed in 1981, it was suppressed by the Polish authorities due to its social criticism and not released until six years later, when it was hailed by critics for its powerful impact.