Classic Ingmar Bergman drama. The wives of four brothers relate to each other the stories of their marriages as they sit in a summer cottage and wait for their husbands to return, stories that include infidelity, light-hearted romance, and the difficulties of raising children. While they talk, one of the women's young sister, Maj (Gerd Andersson), is planning to elope without her sister's knowledge.

The third part of Ingmar Bergman's trilogy of faith (the others are 'Winter Light' in 1961 and 'Through the Glass Lightly' in 1963). The relationship of two sisters Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) reaches breaking point when they arrive in a strange country and stay in a large hotel, empty but for a troupe of dwarf entertainers. Ester is suffering from a terminal disease and has become overly protective of Anna and, to escape, Anna goes out to find a man and ends up bringing back a waiter to her room. This then proceeds to both arouse and anger Ester culminating in a bitter and violent argument between the sisters.

Ascerbic Ingmar Bergman comedy exposing the egotism and pretentiousness rife in the world of artists and critics. Cornelius (Jarl Kulle) is a self-important and highly opinionated critic who has been bribed by the egocentirc womaniser Felix, a famous cellist, to write his biography. But when Cornelius arrives at Felix's lavish home, he finds a string of women in the house, all determined to protect their maestro's privacy. The situation goes from frustrating to humiliating for Cornelius as he is dressed up in women's clothing, photographed in compromising positions, and bombarded with fireworks. He never does get to meet the elusive Felix, but finds out a lot about him from the women in the house, and, armed with this information, decides to blackmail Felix into performing a composition that he, Cornelius, has written.

Ingmar Bergman's stark look at faith is the second part of a trilogy with 'Through a Glass Darkly' (1961) and 'The Silence' (1963). A pastor (Gunnar Bjornstrand) who seems to have lost his faith after his wife's death finds himself unable to give spiritual reassurance to a local fisherman (Max von Sydow), whose wife Marta (Ingrid Thulin) has long been in love with the pastor. As the pastor deals with his own demons and the (to him repulsive) advances of Marta he finds that God may still have some hold over him.