During a rehearsal of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a young violinist, Stig Ericsson, receives a telephone message informing him his wife, Marta, has been killed in an explosion at their summer cottage. Returning to his empty apartment he finds a doll he once gave his wife and remembers incidents from their life together. In a flashback, starting seven years previously when Stig and Marta were new to the orchestra she saves him from the clutches of an evil couple, Mikael and Nelly Bro.

Stig and Marta get married and have children. Marta gradually comes to realise that Stig is an ambitious egotist, a view confirmed by the orchestra's Music Director, Sonderby. When Stig fails as a soloist, he blames Marta and deserts her. When he finally comes to terms with his artistic limitations they are reconciled and he reminisces about the quiet moments of happiness they shared. Marta's death followed shortly after these scenes.

In a final sequence back in the present, Stig returns to the orchestra for a rehearsal. Sonderby talks of the joy Beethoven wished to express in his music, a joy beyond pain and despair. In a last scene Stig's small son enters the hall, sits down and listens to the orchestra as it burst into "Ode to Joy".