Study of womanhood and identity, featuring two of Ingmar Bergman's greatest leading ladies, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson. Elizabeth (Ullmann) is a famous actress who is taken ill and left without speech. While convalescing on the coast, she is cared for by Nurse Alma (Andersson) and, silenced by the effect of her - possibly psychosomatic - illness, finds that her nurse does the talking for both of them. Gradually, the two women's personalities merge and the boundaries between their identities begin to blur.

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.