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.
Stina Ekblad
as Agnes von Krusenstjerna
Erland Josephson
as David Sprengel
Philip Zandén
as Adolf von Krusenstjerna
Lena T. Hansson
as Ava de Geer
Peter Schildt
as Gerhard Odencrantz
Catherine de Seynes
as Eva von Krusenstjerna
Olof Thunberg
as Ernst von Krusenstjerna
Börje Ahlstedt
as Joachin Rosenhjelm
Inga Gill
as Miss Tollen
Gösta Krantz
as Felix
Anita Björk
as Arvida
Heinz Hopf
as Doctor Iller
