The action recounts the story of the narrator's mother, Anna Bergman, in the form of five conversations. Spanning the years 1925 to 1934, the drama focuses on her troubled marriage to a clergyman and love affair with a young theology student. She confides in her Uncle Jacob and he advises her to confide in her husband Henrik. The second conversation is between Anna and her husband and ends in emotional catharsis. The third is between Anna and her dominant mother. The fourth is between Anna and her friend Marta, when Anna has run away with her lover to Norway. The last takes place ten years later between Anna, now 45, and her friend Maria, the wife of Uncle Jacob, who is dying. Her affair ended after the flight to Norway. She is still married to Henrik but tied emotionally to her ex-lover, a fact she admits to herself when she glimpses him in the street long after the break up.

An epilogue takes us back to 1907 when a 17 year-old Anna is talking to Uncle Jacob about going to communion. She hesitates and makes no decision.