Balder and two friends leave the summer heat of Oslo for a luxurious summer house on Nøtterøy. But cracks soon start to appear in the idyll: the power generator is kaput, a forest fire is threatening the other side of the fjord, and they are not allowed to go up into the attic. Strange things happen at night, no one can sleep, and as the days pass, everyone seems to withdraw more and more into themselves. It is as if everyone has secrets that none of them dare confront. Not least Balder himself, who refuses to talk about where he has been in recent years. Instead the façade is maintained, because after all, what is worse than those closest to you seeing who you really are?

This is a novel about friendship, love and parties gone awry, about secrets, power and inadequacy, about young people with old money, but perhaps most of all about feeling alone in the company of others and oneself.