A fractured portrait of desire and isolation, following a failing marriage and parallel stories of emotional entrapment as memories surface during a train journey through postwar Europe. Told through flashbacks and multiple narrative threads, the film signals Ingmar Bergman’s emerging mature style.

Louise Mareuil owns a perfume factory on the French Riviera. She is in a traffic accident with a sketch artist, Claude Dubois. She gives him a blank check which he soon use to withdraw 2 000 000 franc as a joke. Visiting her office, he returns the money and in return she hires him as a sketch artist for the company's advertisement. With his charm and wit he turns the factory upside down, to the chagrin of Louise. She is strict and orderly but soon after letting him go she begins to change her mind. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

The banker Marcus falls in love with the young ballet-dancer Maj who works at the opera. To meet her he takes a job there but Maj is in love with Osvald Berg, the big star of the opera. To wake Osvald's interest for her she asks Marcus if he could play deeply in love with her. Plot summary by nL.

A gardener decides to exact revenge on the men he believes to be responsible for the death of his mentally disturbed wife.

Rich socialite must deny persistent rumours that she has an affair with a poor author.

Sylvia returns to Sweden after having lived abroad for six years. She visits her sister Karin, and is shocked to see how her husband and children regard her as a live-in housekeeper. She convinces Karin to take a vacation with her in Stockholm.

Pelle and Maja are going on a holiday to Italy. The trip is canceled. Maja travels home to her mother. Pelle is persuaded by his friend Kurt to forget Italy and accompany him to Swedish west coast instead.

Samuel Plottner is a stockdealer who only wants to get richer, but suddenly things starts to get complicated: His sons meets their longlost mother which not only is after Samuels money, but also can tell them what happened to them the day they were born. The financial expert Benny Hörnsteen is also after Samuels money, and so is the clown Conny Corny and Lennart K. Brons too. How will this end?

The actor Philip has an accident on the way to his own wedding and the shock makes him lose his voice.

Ulla thinks her husband Billy is boring and starts dating other men. Lillans husband Peter is having important meetings, including girls. Billy and Lillan decides to pretend to be in love, to rouse jealousy of Ulla and Peter.