[1] Actors Thea (Ingrid Thulin), Sebastian (Anders Ek) and Hans (Gunnar Björnstrand) are sequestered in the offices of Judge Abrahamson (Erik Hell), who questions them about the play they have been performing, which has been accused of being obscene.

As the judge interviews them separately and together, the three performers work through their considerable psycho-sexual baggage with each other, while collectively laying siege to the sensibilities of their authoritarian interrogator.

The premiere began with a short conversation between Ingmar Bergman and TV theatre director Lars Löfgren.

A judge in an unnamed country interviews three actors, together and separately, provoking them while investigating a pornographic performance for which they may face a fine.

Sebastian, a volatile heavy drinker in debt, is guilty of killing his former partner and is having an affair with Thea, the dead man's widow.