In 1946, nervous ballet dancer Ruth and her husband Bertil are returning to Sweden from his scholarship tour around Italy. In a Basle hotel room and on a train they quarrel; give food through the window to starving Germans; overhear wisdoms about marriage by Swedish clergymen returning from a conference; and finally make up. In flashbacks, Ruth reminisces her romance with middle-aged officer Raoul, her subsequent abortion, and her ballet career. In a seemingly separate episode set in quiet Stockholm during Midsummer, middle-aged widow Viola is harassed first by a psychiatrist, Dr. Rosengren, and then by a lesbian old school-friend Valborg, with tragic consequences.