Actress Desiree Armfeldt is having an affair with the buffoonish, already-married Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm. But when she spots her old flame Fredrik in the audience of her most recent production, her interest in him is immediately rekindled. Fredrik, however, has recently married the 18-year-old virgin Anne, with whom Fredrik’s own melancholic son Henrik has fallen in love. When all parties meet for a weekend in the country, this tangled web of romantic involvements comes to a head.

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