In this early Ingmar Bergman film, the Swedish director details the downward-spiraling lives of the members of a failing circus and their daily humiliations and degradations. The hapless clown Frost (Anders Ek) discovers his wife, Alma (Gudrun Brost), proudly skinny-dipping in front of a group of leering soldiers, while put-upon circus owner and ringmaster Albert (Åke Grönberg) undergoes torments from both his wife, Agda (Annika Tretow), and his mistress, Anne (Harriet Andersson).