Scandal is hardly a strong enough word to describe the public response to adultery committed by a Swedish pastor's wife in the 1920s. Fidelity, loyalty, duty, propriety: all were viewed through what is now an almost entirely alien lens.

Ingmar Bergman is an acknowledged master of both the cinematic and literary lens, and with elegance and unfailing honesty he creates a sensitive, intimate portrait of Anna, a vivacious, beautiful, and headstrong woman who rushed into her marriage with Henrik - a marriage that, for her, quickly became pleasureless. She feels how truly stifling it is only when she falls passionately in love with Henrik's young friend Tomas.

For the first time, she finds pleasure in love; now her husband's touch, even his devotion, has gone from unstimulating to intolerable. The guilt, however, is at least as thick and heady as the pleasure. Desperate for some joy in either her marriage or her illicit love, Anna embarks on a series of confessions - to her childhood pastor, to her husband, to her mother, to her best friend - seeking the advice or the absolution that will direct her to happiness.