Ingmar Bergman's "The Serpent's Egg" tells the story of Abel Rosenberg's life for a week. After Germany's defeat in World War I, unemployed American circus acrobats lived in impoverished Berlin. When his brother committed suicide, Abel sought refuge in the apartment of an old acquaintance, Professor Villegers. To make a living in this war ravaged city, Abel found a job at a clinic in Veregus, where he discovered the terrible truth behind the kind professor's work and solved the chilling mystery that drove his brother to commit suicide.