The film portrays the Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter August Strindbergs life 1849-1912. Through his extensive correspondence and literary production, from the supposed first work, the drama The Free Thinker (1869), to the posthumously published The Occult Diary (published 1977 ). But also his three wives, Siri von Essen, Frida Uhl and Harriet Bosse, and the children Karin, Greta and Hans are given space in the film. The unpublished first drama The Free Thinker, depicts a young man forced to break with family and tradition to follow his conscience and ideals, becomes a prophecy about the authors own life.