Elisa Esposito, who as an orphaned child was found in a river with wounds on her neck, is mute, and communicates through sign language. She lives alone in an apartment above a cinema, and works as a cleaning-woman at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore at the height of the Cold War. Her friends are her closeted next-door neighbor Giles, a struggling advertising illustrator who shares a strong bond with her, and her co-worker Zelda, a woman who also serves as her interpreter at work.

The facility receives a mysterious creature captured from a South American river by Colonel Richard Strickland, who is in charge of the project to study it. Curious about the creature, Elisa discovers it is a humanoid amphibian. She begins visiting him in secret, and the two form a close bond.

Seeking to exploit the creature to American advantage in the Space Race, a General, Frank Hoyt, orders Strickland to vivisect it. One scientist, Robert Hoffstetler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shape_of_Water
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