THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY tells the remarkable tale of Jean-Dominique Bauby the world-renowned editor of French ELLE magazine who suffered a stroke and was paralyzed by the inexplicable locked in syndrome at the age of 43. Baubys only way of communicating with the outside world was by blinking with one eye and after several dedicated helpers--a string of impossibly beautiful women--helped him to speak through this seemingly irrelevant gesture he began to produce the words that would form his memoir. Along the way as he swam in and out of consciousness memories from his past swelled into the present resulting in a cinematic experience that is at once heartbreaking and hopeful.