Nina, a fragile, perfectionist ballerina dominated by a suffocating mother, finally lands the role of her dreams: the Swan Queen in a new production of Swan Lake. But the part demands that she embody both the purity of the white swan and the dark seduction of the black, and the director pushes her to unleash a shadowy side she isn't sure she possesses. The arrival of a rival as free-spirited as she is threatening, and the overwhelming pressure, drag her into a spiral of paranoia in which reality and delusion blur together. Darren Aronofsky delivers a feverish and disturbing psychological thriller about obsession, desire and the sickly pursuit of perfection.