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.

Ingmar Bergman's drama-about-a-drama, originally made for Swedish television in 1969, asks questions about obscenity, censorship and the role of the artist. Three actors from a theatre troupe that has had its latest production, 'The Rite', banned after being charged with obscenity are each interrogated privately by a provincial magistrate. The trio are incestuously involved: Thea (Ingrid Thulin) is married to Hans (Gunnar Björnstrand) but is having an affair with Sebastian (Anders Ek), who killed her former husband in a crime of passion. The judge, playing on the insecurities and vanity of the three actors, brings to light their deepest, darkest secrets. Bergman deliberately does not reveal the obscene nature of the troupe's production, leaving the viewer to imagine for themselves what they consider obscenity to be.

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.