"A Saucer of Loneliness" is the second segment of the twenty-fifth episode, the first episode of the second season (1986–87) of the television series The Twilight Zone. It is based off the short story of the same name by Theodore Sturgeon.

Margaret is a middle aged woman who is very lonely. She is a spinster who works as a waitress at a diner and enjoys walking on the beach. When she returns home after work one night, her alcoholic mother cruelly criticizes her for being unmarried at her age. Margaret wanders into her bedroom and cries herself to sleep. The next day on her way to work, Margaret becomes part of a crowd on the beach who are watching a small golden flying saucer in the sky. As it descends from the atmosphere it hovers around as if it were looking for someone. It follows Margaret and apparently communicates with her telepathically, but then she falls unconscious. When she revives, she insists that the spacecraft "spoke" to her. She states that the saucer specifically wanted to give only her a message, but she doesn't reveal the message because it is private. Government authorities capture and examine the saucer, but find it completely empty. They are unable to identify the composition of the metal hull.

Soon Margaret's mother throws her out of the house so she goes to stay at a hotel. Later when Margaret takes a stroll on the crowded boardwalk, she is approached by a woman who thinks that Jesus spoke to her through the saucer; she believes that Margaret has the power to heal, but Margaret flees in tears. At her hotel room, she writes notes, places them in bottles and throws them into the ocean. Each note begins with the phrase, "To the loneliest one".

The next day, a handsome patron at the restaurant where Margaret works asks her for a date. Excited, Margaret buys a new outfit for the evening. The date is initially enjoyable for her, until her date asks about the saucer's message. Margaret realises that her date is not interested in her as a person, but only wants to know about the saucer. She immediately ends the date and goes home to cry herself to sleep.

Desperate and without hope, Margaret walks along the beach late at night and decides to commit suicide. She walks into the ocean to be consumed by the waves, but a man comes from behind and pulls her out. He explains that he found one of her bottles and was touched by the message. She tells him that it was the only thing she could call her own, and the only thing she could do for another like herself was to pass the message along. The man says that when he read it, he knew it was connected to the saucer and the words were like a song. Margaret explains that the saucer was just an interstellar "message in a bottle", just like her bottles thrown into the ocean. Her messages were her own words, an imperfect translation of the saucer's message. She shows the man the actual message, which takes the form of a glowing orb in the palm of her hand. They caress the orb together in their hands and then it slowly disappears. Margaret and the man walk onward arm in arm, her pain and loneliness having seemingly come to an end.

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