《缺席》融合黑白和彩色、真人和动画以及其它一些元素。片中的女人、在精神病收容所里的女画家“EH”（艾玛•豪科），反复地用断裂的铅笔芯给自己的丈夫写着信，在她的窗外，一束持续变化着的光表现着她的精神情绪。配合着这在棱镜般的镜子之间反射的光的，是时有时无的宛如从脑海中传出的女人的悲凄的尖叫——全片几乎没有出现过女主角的正脸，以体现一种匿名性，同时通过其它手法来模拟出她脑中的镜像。 值得一提的是，为本片配乐《一对》（指女人和看不见的丈夫是一对）的作曲家施托克豪斯（Stockhausen Karlheinz）在配乐的过程中哭了，因为这部片子让他想起了自己在二战期间被纳粹抓走的母亲。A woman sits alone on a chair at a table in a room on one of the top floors of an asylum. Bright spot lights dot the night, sometimes shining on her window. She sharpens pencils and writes on a page in a copy book. The pencil point often breaks under her fingers' force. She places broken points outside the window on the sill. A satanic figure is somewhere nearby, animated but of straw or clay, not flesh. She finishes her writing, tears the paper from the pad, folds it, places it in an envelope, and slips it through a slot. Is she writing to her husband? "Sweetheart, come."
