Bergman's script explores the story of his parents' relationship in this absorbing study of infidelity and self-knowledge. When Anna tells her clergyman uncle Jacob that she's having an affair with a much younger seminary student, the confession initiates a series of five conversations, ranging back and forth in time, in which her desire to escape the bonds of marriage is contrasted against both the disillusioned compromise later required to sustain the union, and the bright questioning spirit displayed in her early confirmation classes.
