London at the end of the 19th century.
Esther Kahn lives in the East End, child of Jewish immigrants.
They all work in the family’s tailor shop. Esther is slow and closed in on herself, she voices no opinions about anything, no feelings for anyone; Esther is stone.
It’s when she goes to the theater that Esther “awakens” and comes to life, for she doesn’t look at plays in the same way that others do, she lives them.
She decides to become an actress.
Thus begins her apprenticeship in the theater and the world which culminates one night, on stage, when she suddenly feels the effects of twenty years of repressed existence surge from within her.