Translated by Sverre Lyngstad. Idun Hov's experiences condemn her to a life spent mostly in a mental hospital where she begins to write. The trials of Idun Hov's life and of Norway itself enter her writing, Idun's own experiences fuse with the German occupation of Norway, the shame of collaboration and the upheavals of a small nation betrayed.

Bjorn Hansen, a respectable town treasurer, has just turned fifty and is horrified by the thought that chance has ruled his life. Eighteen years ago he left his wife and their two-year-old son for his mistress, who persuaded him to start afresh in a small, provincial town and to devote himself to an amateur theater.In time that relationship also faded, and after four years of living alone Bjorn contemplates an extraordinary course of action that will change his life forever.       He finds a fellow conspirator in Dr. Schiotz, who has a secret of his own and offers to help Bjorn carry...