the book portrays a couple whose love, in combination with psychosis and religious blindness, causes them to go under. the frame story, about a psychiatrist who reads journals concerning this "case", is following another marriage. the book's core question is what actually determines if a relationship based on love is healthy or sick. it is a classic case description, created using hospital records, letters, and recollections. "de två saliga" was made into a movie by ingmar bergman, and released in 1986.