The story takes place during a 24-hour period while four family members take their vacation on a remote island, shortly after one of them, Karin (Andersson), is released from an asylum where she has been treated for
schizophrenia. Karin's husband Martin (von Sydow), a respected doctor, tells her father David (Björnstrand) that Karin's disease is almost incurable. Meanwhile, Minus (Passgård), Karin's 17-year-old brother, tells Karin that he wishes he could have a real conversation with his father and feels deprived of his father's affection. David is a
novelist suffering from "
writer's block" who has just returned from a long trip abroad. He announces he will leave again in a month, though he promised he would stay. The others perform a play for him that Minus has written. David, while feigning approval of the play, takes offence since the play can be interpreted as an attack on his character. That night, after rejecting Martin's
erotic overtures, Karin wakes up and follows the sound of a
foghorn to the attic. She faints after an episode in which she
hears voices behind the peeling wallpaper. She then enters David's room and looks through his desk and finds his diary, seeing his description of her disease as incurable. She discovers his callous desire to record the details of her deterioration. The following morning, David and Martin, while fishing, confront each other over Karin. Martin accuses David of sacrificing his daughter for his art and of being
self-absorbed, callous, cowardly, and phony. David is evasive but admits that much of what Martin says is true. David says that he recently tried
to kill himself by driving over a cliff but was saved by a faulty
transmission. He says that after that, he discovered that he loves Karin, Minus and Martin, and this gives him hope. Meanwhile, Karin tells Minus about her episodes, and that she is waiting for God to appear behind the wallpaper in the attic. Minus is somewhat sexually frustrated, and Karin teases him, even more so after she discovers that he hides a
pornographic magazine. Later, on the beach, when Karin sees that a storm is coming, she runs into a wrecked ship and huddles in fear. Minus goes to her and they engage in
incestuous sexual activity. Minus tells the other men about the incident in the ship and Martin calls for an ambulance. Karin asks to speak with her father alone. She confesses her misconduct toward Martin and Minus, saying that a voice told her to act that way and also to search David's desk. She tells David she would like to remain at the hospital, because she cannot go back and forth between two realities but must choose one. While they are packing to go to the hospital, she runs to the attic where Martin and David observe her actions. She says that God is about to walk out of the closet door, and asks her husband to allow her to enjoy the moment. She becomes fixated on a crack in the wall out of which a spider emerges. The ambulance, a helicopter, flies by the window, making a lot of noise and shaking the door open. Karin moves toward the door eagerly but then she runs from it, terrified, and goes into a frenzy of panic. Karin vanishes and, reappearing in a frenzy, is sedated. When she stands, she tells them of God: an evil-faced spider who tried to penetrate her. She looked into God's eyes, and they were "cold and calm," and when God failed to penetrate her he retreated onto the wall. "I have seen God," she announces. Karin and Martin leave in the helicopter. Minus tells his father that he is afraid, because when Karin had grabbed him in the ship, he began leaving ordinary reality. He asks his father if he can survive that way. David tells him he can if he has "something to hold on to". He tells Minus of his own hope:
love. David and his son discuss the concept of love as it relates to God, and they find solace in the idea that their own love may help sustain Karin. Minus is grateful and in awe that he finally had a real conversation with his father, uttering: "Papa spoke to me". == Cast ==