The film is made up of three separate stories told by a group of women living with their families in a compound of summer houses in the Stockholm archipelago. Four are married; the fifth, the teenage sister of one of them. For amusement each of the women agrees to tell about a defining moment in their marriage. Annette, the oldest, maintains that their marriages will not stand the scrutiny of a long summer together. Her story is never told but her rather cynical view is that a woman's consolation lies "in Jesus or grandchildren".

The first is Rakel's whose marriage to Eugen is childless. She recounts her affair with a lover, Kaj, who was at the summerhouse visiting. When Eugen learns about the affair he is distraught and hiding in the woodshed threatens to shoot himself. He explains to Rakel that his sense of shame and loneliness bothers him rather than the infidelity. Rakel calms him and the marriage continues.

The second is Marta's and her husband Martin. They are in Paris when Martin, a painter and the black sheep of the family meets Marta in a nightclub and as a consequence abandons her American fiancé. They become a couple and she becomes pregnant. In a flashback within a flashback the lonely delivery of the child is depicted in nightmarish vignettes from her life with the immature Martin who abandons her. Eventually he returns to her and they marry. Marta views her husband, like Rakel, as an overgrown child.

The third story is comical and set in a lift. Karin and her husband Fredrik, a successful, self-absorbed, businessman returning from a party get trapped in a lift. They tease each other with stories of their infidelities and then make love for the first time in many years. They decide to have a second honeymoon but back in the reality of life Fredrik, late for a business meeting rushes off and the romantic notion is forgotten. Karin muses over the lot of women.

The film concludes with the young sister of Marta, having learned nothing from the object lessons she has heard, decides to elope with her boy friend. They set out in a boat just as the husbands of the women arrive from the city. Nothing is done to prevent the young couple running away.