Originally conceived for TV, the story charts the nervous breakdown and recovery of Jenny Isaksson, a psychiatrist in her late thirties. The basic set is the home of Jenny's grandparents in Stockholm.

Jenny has gone to stay with her grandparents for the summer while a new house is being built for her. Her husband is in the US and her teenage daughter at summer camp. Jenny is substituting for the head of the psychiatric clinic at the hospital where she works. One of her patients, Maria, confronts her, drooling and caressing her. Jenny dismisses the action as fantasy. Later she receives an anonymous call advising her to go to a house recently vacated by her and her family. There she finds Maria drugged on the floor. Two men accost her and one tries to rape her.

At a party given by the head psychiatrist's wife, Jenny meets Tomas, a gynaecologist. They have dinner and go back to his house. When she returns to her Grandmother's house she hallucinates that she sees the ghost of an old woman, dressed in black, with cold staring eyes. The woman continues to appear, haunting Jenny until she is driven into making a suicide attempt.

Tomas discovers her and takes her to the hospital. As she is being resuscitated, she hallucinates again and imagines herself dressed in red robe and cap wandering through the psychic landscape of her childhood. She is searching for her parents, who were killed in a car accident. She relives fears of being locked in a dark cupboard as a punishment. In another dream sequence she is confronted by her parents; finds her grandfather crouched in a cupboard, pulls a rubber mask off a woman's face which is covered in bleeding sores and recommends medication to her patients while feeling uncomfortable by their attempts to touch her.

In another nightmare she sees herself, dead, nailed in a coffin. Her corpse is revived but she sets the coffin alight while her body inside cries out desperately. In a last dream sequence Jenny assumes the voice of an old woman who reprimands her for neglecting her duties and threatens to lock her in the cupboard.

As she starts to recover, her husband, who has rushed back from the US, visits her but he seems preoccupied with his work. Their daughter also visits, listens silently to her explanations and leaves.

Tomas who has stayed by her during her recovery tells her he is leaving for Jamaica. She returns to her grandparents. Her grandfather has had a stroke and, decrepit and senile, is totally dependent on her grandmother. Jenny is standing behind a curtain watching the silent communication between the two old people. She concludes that love encompasses everything, even death.

The film ends with Jenny calling the hospital to inform them she will be returning to work soon. She also has the possibility of visiting the US.