Tollakur er is an elderly widower. He lives a simple life in his small home, but carries a secret too great to believe. The love of his life was named Ingibjørg. Together they had two children. He had his sawmill, where he would cut logs for villagers and outsiders alike. Tollakur had his special boy, Oddo, who sought him out when nobody else would take care of him. But new and senseless times surged through the country. People went to the timber yard rather than purchasing logs from Tollakur. The sawmill could no longer yield a profit. Ingibjørg was talking about moving to the village to be closer to the others.

A great misfortune struck this small family.

When we enter the story, Ingibjørg is dead and the children are fully grown. The world around him has moved on, but Tollakur cannot accept that his daughter, Hillevi, moved away from the village to study and work.

Tollakur is furious. He dislikes these "new times" and hates everything others call progress. He refuses to adapt. But his health is failing. With one foot in the grave, the time has come to tell the truth. He carries a dark secret and has asked his children to come home.

In 2020 Tore Renberg won the Norwegian Bookseller's Prize for this book, which was considered to be the best Norwegian novel that year.