Iris King is a grieving widow raising two children on a tight budget while working at a baked goods factory. She meets Stanley Cox, a hard-working cafeteria cook at the same factory, after he steps in to help her when her purse is stolen.

John Williams provided a delicate, piano-driven score 📖 The Narrative

Using the kitchen table as a classroom, their nightly lessons cause a deep, authentic romance to slowly blossom. ✨ Critical & Cultural Significance STANLEY & IRIS (1990) | Official Trailer | Amazon MGM

Robert De Niro as Stanley Cox and Jane Fonda as Iris King

Iris notices peculiar behaviors from Stanley and realizes he is completely illiterate. After she innocently mentions this to his boss, Stanley is promptly fired over safety and liability concerns.

Pushed into poverty and forced to put his aging father in a low-end home, Stanley confronts his pride and asks Iris to teach him how to read and write.

Very loosely adapted from Pat Barker’s 1982 novel Union Street