THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS follows a victim of the Bosnian conflict, Hanna (Sarah Polley), as she attempts to recover from her traumatic struggle. Rendered near-deaf and emotionally fragile, Hanna migrates to the UK where she finds work in a factory. Having worked solidly for four years without holidays or sick days, the monotony of Hanna's lonely life is interrupted when the factory's union forces her to take a vacation. Terrified at the prospect of being left with her nightmarish thoughts, she volunteers to nurse a burns victim on an oil rig. As Hanna tends to the blinded Josef (Tim Robbins), she keeps the traumatic details of her life guarded. But as time on the isolated rig passes, Hanna finds herself drawn to her patient, somehow managing to confide the terrible secrets of her past.