Waiting Women is an episodic work composed of three segments, thr third of which represents Bergman's first foray into comedy, later honed in the erotic farce A Lesson In Love. Three women (all sisters-in-law) talk about their marital problems while waiting for their husbands at a summer cottage. The first story concerns Rakel (Anita Björk) and an adulterous episode that changed her marriage forever. In the next, intensely visual segment, featuring only limited dialogue, Marta (Maj-Britt Nilsson) tells of her difficult relationship with an artist (her future husband) in Paris. In the acclaimed final piece - which Bergman himself considered quite innovative and daring and was inspired by the cinematic style of Alfred Hitchcock - Karin and her husband, Fredrik (Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand), find themselves stuck together in an elevator and consequently end up making some surprising discoveries about each other's personalities. The three women's stories inspire Karin's younger sister Maj (Gerd Andersson) to elope with the man she loves.