"Dance of Death" follows Edgar, a captain in the Swedish coast artillery, and his wife, Alice, live an unhappy existence. Their unhappiness is caused by Edgar’s contempt for everyone else in the world; he thinks of himself as a better being than others, even his wife, and he makes their marriage a tyranny. Then tension escalates when Alice's visiting cousin is lured into their marital unhappiness in August Strindberg's 1901 play.