The backwoods of North Carolina is where Nell (Jodie Foster) lives, all alone. She has her own form of language and no idea of a world beyond her small plot of land. Then civilization enters her life in the form of two doctors (Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson), who discover the untamed wild child. Now that they have come to study her, Nell's life will never be the same again--but neither will theirs.