Vivacious beauty Anna, who had defied her family to marry an impoverished Lutheran priest, with time grew weary of her solemn husband Henrik. His friend, student-priest Tomas, came into her life and she fell in love with him. She confesses to her priestly uncle, but confession is not alleviation. She still cannot go back to her husband. Henrik was Ingmar Bergmans father: Anna was his mother. The famous film director has produced two previous books, mixtures of fiction and memoir, about their relationship. Their courtship was narrated in The Best Intentions. In Sundays Child their continued brittle relationship was seen through the eyes of the child, Bergman himself. Private Confessions is the third book in which Bergman traces the story of their lives. Like the previous two it recreates the characters of his parents with vivid reality and reveals that his talents as a writer equal his film-making talents.