The vantage a story is told from - whose eyes and mind the reader is given access to.
Point of view is the position the narration occupies: first person ('I'), second person ('you'), or third person, and within third, how close it sits to a character's inner life. It governs what the reader can know, since we learn only what the chosen vantage can perceive.
Choosing a point of view is choosing a set of constraints, and the constraints are the point. A mystery lives on what the narrator can't see; intimacy comes from staying inside one head. The most common beginner error is drifting between vantages mid-scene rather than committing to one.
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