Erland Josephson

Swedish pauper's family is starving. In desperation, he steals his lord's ox. He hopes that the crime will not be revealed, but it happens.

Marilyn Jordan, an American, lives in Stockholm with her Swedish husband and family. Her behavior is bizarre, perhaps mad: she poisons the dog's milk and advises the dog not to drink it; she sets the sheets afire as her husband sleeps; she crawls under the dining table to sing. While detained at airport customs for carrying pruning shears, she meets a young Yugoslav woman and goes with her to a Gypsy enclave where she's fought over, takes a lover, helps with the sordid entertainment at a bar, and returns home more dangerous than before. The film also tells parallel stories of Marilyn's daughter becoming a junior homemaker as the young immigrant practices her striptease.

TV-film based on August Strindberg's play about the God Indra's daughter comes down to Earth and experience the people livsvilkor.