Bissa Abelli

About the Swedish author Agnes Von Krusenstjerna during the period of her marriage to David Sprengel. In the hallucinatory opening sequence she is brought in a straitjacket by her husband and two psychiatric nurses through the Venice Carnival nocturnal antics to a mental hospital in the city. With her is a manuscript of her autobiography, which she calls "her child". The book is Agnes showdown with her family, and in flashbacks presented, Agnes progress from the author of innocent girls' books to serious and self-consuming novelist.

The sawmill in a northern Swedish village close down. Nils becomes unemployed. In order to cope with needs of his family, he is forced to travel south. His wife Karin and the children will stay in the village until further notice. Nils starts working at a factory. In addition to the job, he has been promised a good residence so that the family can move to him.