Academy Award winner Jodie Foster "gives a fearless, fierce, beautifully attuned performance" (TIME MAGAZINE) as Nell, a young woman living alone in the backwoods of North Carolina. When Dr. Jerry Lovell (Liam Neeson) discovers Nell, he is intrigued by her erratic behavior and unique pattern of speech. Together with a psychologist (Natasha Richardson), Lovell becomes determined to pierce Nell's private world and protect her from a life of scientific study. But he soon discovers that the woman whose way of life he has sought to protect has transformed his own forever.