In one of John Cassavetes's most acclaimed films, the director's favorite leading lady, wife Gena Rowlands, plays a stage star heading for a breakdown -- just as her latest show is about to open -- after a fan she dismissed is killed in an accident. The actress begins to lose her grip on both her stage persona and her real one. Ben Gazzara, another regular, plays the theatrical director, and Cassavetes cast himself as the male lead in the play.