Bengt's Last Summer

Professor Bengt Svensson has enjoyed a comfortable life. Each summer he leaves the southern Swedish city of Lund to spend his holidays at the quiet resort of Tällberg on the shores of Lake Siljan. Here, at the Hotel Dalecarlia, he settles down to several months of painting and catching butterflies.

It is midsummer and the fragrance of wild flowers is in the air while the gentle slopes are echoing with violin music. As always, he joins in the merry solstice celebrations when, one morning, he falls prey to the charms of Svea - a little girl of barely teenage years with long blonde hair, blue eyes and alluring appearance. Suddenly everything changes. Smitten by her beauty, his health deteriorates as he seeks her presence.

As the festivities planned for his sixtieth birthday draw closer, Bengt senses an aching void of loneliness. But surely it's far too late to change his lifestyle now. Worse still, neither the obliging hotel staff nor a local doctor seem capable of helping him. Then, fearing his life is drawing to an untimely end, he abandons all restraint.