At 43, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the charismatic editor of French 'Elle' was a man defined by his passion for life. On December 1995, he suffered a massive stroke and his brain stem was rendered inactive. After lapsing into a coma, he awoke 20 days later to find himself the victim of a rare locked-in syndrome - mentally alert but permanently immobile and speechles. Refusing to accept his fate, Bauby is determined to escape the paralysis of his diving bell and free the butterflies of his imagination. The only way he can express his frustration, however, was by moving his left eye, blinking a code representing letters of the alphabet. Painstakingly, he starts writing a memoir.