Study of womanhood and identity, featuring two of Ingmar Bergman's greatest leading ladies, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson. Elizabeth (Ullmann) is a famous actress who is taken ill and left without speech. While convalescing on the coast, she is cared for by Nurse Alma (Andersson) and, silenced by the effect of her - possibly psychosomatic - illness, finds that her nurse does the talking for both of them. Gradually, the two women's personalities merge and the boundaries between their identities begin to blur.