An updated take on the woman's picture colored by the growing pains of second-wave feminism, Martin Scorsese's profoundly moving film places at its center a figure and subject typically found in the periphery of his work: the wife and mother, depicted as a survivor of domestic abuse with a surprising degree of candor. Thrust into single motherhood by the sudden death of her violent husband, Alice (Ellen Burstyn, who won an Oscar for her glittering performance) leaves New Mexico for Arizona with her son Tommy (Alfred Lutter). Though she clutches to her dream of revitalizing her long-dormant singing career in her hometown of Monterey, California, the harsh reality of raising a child as a former stay-at-home mother with no work experience compels the worn-down and affection-starved Alice to settle in both work and romance. With little time to contemplate the past and how to keep a familiar cycle of dependence on domineering men from repeating itself, Alice experiences the full force of total independence with her adoring son as witness to every risk and every mistake.