This paper presents the results of a theoretical study of the interactions between a laminar, premixed flame front and a plane acoustic wave. Its objective is to elucidate the processes that damp or drive acoustic waves as they interact with flames. Using linear analysis, the characteristics of the acoustic field, the flame's movement and wrinkling in response to acoustic perturbations, and the acoustic energy that is produced or dissipated at the flame are calculated. These calculations show that the net acoustic energy flux out of the flame is controlled by competing acoustic energy production and dissipation processes. Energy is added to the acoustic field by unsteady heat release processes resulting from the unsteady flux of unburned reactants through the flame by fluctuations in the flame speed or density of the unburned reactants. Energy is dissipated by the transfer of acoustic energy into fluctuations in vorticity that are generated at the flame front because of the misaligned fluctuating pressure and mean density gradients (i.e. the baroclinic vorticity production mechanism). The paper concludes by showing how these results can be generalized to determine the response of planar flames to an arbitrarily complex acoustic field. The principal contribution of this work is its demonstration that the excitation of vorticity and fluctuations in the flame speed have significant qualitative and quantitative affects on the interactions between flames and acoustic waves.