Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.

In the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

1968 Swedish film by Ingmar Bergman

Three women in a maternity ward share their lives and intimate thoughts, and face the choice of keeping their babies or offering them for adoption.

1953 film by Ingmar Bergman

Dr. Jenny Isaksson is a psychiatrist whose temporary position at a mental hospital offers only modest responsibilities. With her husband out of the country for a seminar and her daughter at camp, Jenny moves in with her grandparents, expecting a relaxing few months. But it isn't long before unpleasant memories of her childhood, the sudden appearance of strange apparitions, and a near-rape push this otherwise stable woman to the very edge of sanity.

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

1978 film by Ingmar Bergman

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

戏中，萨德本人从未露面，只存在于六名登场人物的对话中。人物的性格也很分明，西缅男爵夫人代表“美德”、而圣芳伯爵夫人代表“恶行”，门托纽夫人则代表了世俗。尽管两位代表善恶的人物更富有戏剧性，然而全剧的中心仍是主人公露涅和门托纽夫人的对立。
以剧中人对萨德的态度为例：门托纽夫人认为声名狼藉、锒铛入狱的萨德根本就是家庭的耻辱，而萨德的妻子露涅则截然不同，她真诚地等待着被社会排斥的丈夫，并认为这才是表达真爱的惟一方式。但是，当革命风起云涌，社会价值观也随之改变。萨德出狱并被捧为新时代的旗手，门托纽夫人的态度来了个一百八十度大转弯，她成了萨德的捧哏，称萨德为法国的献身者。
而露涅的态度却截然相反。丈夫重新被社会承认，意味着她那孤独的爱就此丧失了根基。不仅如此，她读了萨德在狱中写的小说，里面描写了一位坚持美德的女子的悲剧，露涅在作品中看到了自己的影子。她的孤独之爱从根底瓦解了，同时也意识到之前的半生不过是徒劳，于是她投身修道院，再也不与萨德相会。剧中露涅曾说：“与其付诸行动，不如创制法则……”
这句话也可以理解为“与其委身现实，不如付诸思想”。对原剧作者三岛先生来说，“艺术”无疑是存在于现实之外的、对于异端思想之美的例证。