Upon his passing, the virtuoso cellist Felix leaves behind six “widows”, as well as Cornelius the music critic, who also pays his respects before Felix’s open coffin. The ambitious, would-be composer has been a guest at the home of the cellist and his many mistresses, ostensibly in order to write his biography. When Felix refuses to be interviewed, Cornelius begins pestering the women with questions and in the process learns some saucy secrets that he can use to blackmail Felix into performing one of the critic’s mediocre compositions. Ingmar Bergman’s first colour film – with an excellent cast of almost entirely women – is a frivolous comedy about the interplay between love and art. Within the deliberately contrived setting of an extravagant mansion, the film moves through a series of sexual encounters, arousing a flurry of emotions that are always a means to some other end.