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.

Ingmar Bergman's film about love found and lost within a summer. One summer, Mari (Maj-Britt Nilsson), a young ballerina, seeks refuge from an unhappy homelife by staying with her uncle and aunt on an island near Stockholm. Despite her uncle's possessiveness, Mari falls for a young man Henrik and before she has to return to the city, they express their love for one another. But Henrik is killed in a swimming accident, and Mari has to return to the city and cope with a life alone. Years later, when she discovers her diary of her stay on the island, Mari returns to the island to confront her uncle. With the past finally dealt with she returns to her life of dancing and her new lover with a renewed outlook.

One of Ingmar Bergman's early works. Marta (Maj-Britt Nilsson) and Stig (Stig Olin) meet and marry while playing in an orchestra. However, their relationship deteriorates after Stig has an affair. The central themes of this film - the incompatability of spouses and the responsibility of artists - are recurrent fascinations for Bergman.