[1] Karen, a housewife in her late thirties, leaves her troubled marriage and moves into a cheap room in a crumbling neighborhood where she tries to start a new life.

Karen's new friend Patricia introduces her to a playwright with whom she begins a relationship.

But before they leave, she realizes that the move would keep her from living her own life as she intended, and she chooses not to go.

The film ends with Karen riding on the bus, still uncertain of the future, but content to finally be living on her own terms.

As she gets off the bus, another woman gets on, destitute and crying, just as Karen had done at the start of the film.