Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin), her sister Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and Anna's young son, Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom), 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.