In nineteenth-century New Zealand, a mute Scottish woman, Ada (Holly Hunter), is sent with her young daughter to marry a stranger in a remote wilderness settlement. The one thing she has brought from home is her beloved piano. When her taciturn new husband (Sam Neill) sells the instrument to a neighboring land owner (Harvey Keitel), Ada is forced into an arrangement of startling intimacy. Jane Campion's luminous, Palme d'Or–winning film is a searching exploration of creativity, desire, and agency set against a hauntingly beautiful landscape. Hunter won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her silent, expressive performance.