Section I (4 min): Over a blank screen, a didactic female voice recites alphabetic couplets from an early Bay State Primer. Section II (47 min, silent): Letters from the Roman alphabet, silver on a black ground, alternate with random images, including those of a book; an egg frying; a red ibis; cookies; a woman's face; a tree in winter; hands washing; a strolling man; beef being ground; a newly-painted wall; a child swinging; three men excavating; dried beans; shoes; a steam vent; a child's Tinkertoy chain; rhinoceros; a flat tire; a tangerine; sidestreets at night; a bonfire; cattails; and waves. Gradually, these images replace letters in the sequence, according to a mathematical progression. Section III (11 min): As six female voices read from Robert Grosseteste's 13th-century treatise, On Light or the Ingression of Forms , each voice reciting in turn a single word, a couple and a dog retreat through a snowy field into a forest. As they disappear into the woods, the image of the field fades to white.