Marilyn Jordan an American lives in Stockholm with her Swedish husband and family. Her behavior is bizarre perhaps mad: she poisons the dog's milk and advises the dog not to drink it; she sets the sheets afire as her husband sleeps; she crawls under the dining table to sing. While detained at airport customs for carrying pruning shears she meets a young Yugoslav woman and goes with her to a Gypsy enclave where she's fought over takes a lover helps with the sordid entertainment at a bar and returns home more dangerous than before. The film also tells parallel stories of Marilyn's daughter becoming a junior homemaker as the young immigrant practices her striptease.