He is working on Strindberg's The dream play for the fifth time.Two women enter the scene: Anna Egerman, who in Strindberg's play is Indra. Anna would gladly spend both days and nights at the theatre, rehearsing until perfection. But this evening she comes back to the theatre to find her bracelet - which she has never had nor lost. Henrik Vogler was once in love with Anna's mother and Anna could have been his daughter.The other woman is Rakel, a neurotic alcoholic. Her husband and her physician (who is also her lover) observe her closely and comment on her behaviour that she was a small and disobedient child. Towards Rakel, Vogler has the classical feelings both of attraction and repulsion - the attraction of a woman who is still desirable and the feeling of repulsio towards one who has let herself go.Anna has the attraction of youth but when she tells Vogler that she is pregnant he is shocked: And scandalized when he learns that she has had an abortion - for love of the theatre and the play.