An Awfully Big Adventure

In the film's opening, a hotelier ushers a woman and child into a bomb shelter as Liverpool endures the Blitz. A brief flashback shows the woman leaving her baby in a basement, lit by flickering candles. Before she goes, she drops a string of pearls on the child's pillow, wrapped around a single rose.

Some time later, Stella Bradshaw lives with her Uncle Vernon and Aunt Lily in a working-class Liverpool household. With no close family connections, she escapes into phone booths to speak with a mother who never appears on screen. Her uncle signs her up for speech lessons and pushes her toward a local repertory theatre.

After an unsuccessful audition, Stella begins work as a gofer for Meredith Potter and Bunny, the troupe's sleazy director and loyal stage manager. She remains mostly ignored by Meredith, who is more amused by others than by her. This start places her inside the theatre world she craves.

Stella develops a crush on the worldly, self-absorbed Meredith, unaware of his true nature. He reveals a cruel indifference and uses his power to belittle her. He grants her the small role of Ptolemy in Caesar and Cleopatra but otherwise dismisses her talent.

Meredith treats Dawn Allenby with callous indifference and ultimately dismisses her from the company. Dawn's desperate bid for attention ends in a suicide attempt, highlighting Meredith's corrosive influence. Stella watches the cruelty unfold with mixed fascination and fear.

P. L. O'Hara, a talented actor with wartime scars and a lost love he believes bore him a son, returns to the troupe. He begins an affair with Stella, drawn to her but emotionally guarded, and she uses the liaison to gain sexual experience. The relationship deepens amid backstage intrigue and jealousy.

During a cast outing, Geoffrey—another stagehand whom Potter has been toying with—erupts and punches O'Hara in the nose. The cast rushes to comfort Geoffrey, and Stella remarks that he should be fired. The moment exposes the undercurrents of control and fear within the company.

O'Hara explains to Stella that Meredith has harmed people like Geoffrey and Bunny his whole life; 'What he wants is hearts' he says, revealing the true cost of Meredith's behavior. The conversation shifts Stella's understanding of the director from glamour to danger. She begins to see the pattern behind the cruelty.

O'Hara visits Stella's aunt and uncle and learns Stella's history. He discovers that Stella's mother was his long-lost love, Stella Maris, and that Stella is his daughter, not his son. He keeps the revelation to himself, choosing to retreat to the seaport to process it.

O'Hara drives to the seaport, still reeling from the revelations, but misfortune follows him. He slips on a wet gangplank, falls into the water, and drowns. As he sinks, he catches a glimpse of the girl from the earlier flashback clutching an infant, a haunting reminder of the past.

Stella hurries to a phone booth to confide her mounting fears and sense of loss. In the background, the absent Stella Maris—the mother who left her—appears through a recorded voice rather than a person. The exchange underscores the strange, otherworldly link between mother and daughter.

It is revealed that Stella Maris, the mother who vanished years ago, won a nationwide contest to be the voice of the speaking clock. Her recorded voice provides the only response to her daughter's confidences. The revelation ties the mother's absence to the clock's ticking presence in Stella's life and the daughter's vulnerability.