Inspired by Jean Cocteau's melodrama of the same name — which had already influenced Almodóvar in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown — The Human Voice follows a woman (Tilda Swinton), a suitcase and a dog. While she waits for her ex-lover to collect her belongings, the protagonist goes through an emotional turmoil, oscillating between anger, despair and resignation in the face of abandonment. Her only companion is her dog, who is still innocently waiting for his owner. Almodóvar resorts to an exercise in artificiality — whether in the décor or the direction — for an intimate portrait of loneliness and loss, which marks the first collaboration between Almodóvar and Swinton.