The life of a woman who passes for a man in Victorian Ireland and deals with the limitation of her choice.

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In the austere Ireland of the Victorian era, Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is the majordomo of the Hotel Morrisson. Although he is appreciated, no one knows that Albert is actually a woman who passes for a man to make a decent life for herself. Over the years, the proper, disciplined life of this model employee have enable him to put aside a nest egg, to open his own business or perhaps even marry. Albert finds a possible wife in a co-worker (Mia Wasikowska), and while another woman with a haircut too short for the times encourages him to try, the hope she inspires in him may be his undoing...

Rodrigo Garcia's adaptation of the novel by George Moore, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs has all the rigor of the times and the place. Although the precise performance of Glenn Close as a transvestite who may never be able to become feminine again is very touching, the plot is strewn with too many obvious devices for anything to be really surprising. The comings and goings of the hotel's guests and those of the little people there to serve them result in a whirlwind of information that is nothing short of dizzying.