During a performance, stage actress Elisabet Vogler stops speaking for a moment. The next day she withdraws completely into a mental and physical inertia. Her psychiatrist sends her to a beach house to rest. She is attended by Alma, a trained nurse who attempts to penetrate the silence by talking about herself. A warm friendship develops between the two women. More than 50 years after its premiere, Ingmar Bergman’s enigmatic masterpiece still shines with a piercing intensity.