Otto Hoffman, a small time West German manufacturer, is a weakling-mercilessly henpecked by his two spinster cousins who live with him. As a young man, Otto's personality was crushed by his powerful father, Karl Hoffman. Otto hated his father, and will soon be rid of him. He has only to go into East Germany to bring the old man's body back to the West for burial. Also in East Germany is his mother's jewelry-which Otto's cousins would like him to smuggle across the border.

Ingrid Bergman plays a middle-aged woman going through a psychological crisis as a love affair ends. French playwright Jean Cocteau's one-character drama unfolds in the form of an extended monologue--a one-sided telephone conversation in which the woman tries to win back her lover despite her growing suspicion that he is calling from his young fiancée's home.