Mattis doesn't understand much about the world. He doesn't understand why others call it simple. Or why his sister Hege, who has cared for him in their quiet lakeside cottage since they were children, is so frustrated. But he knows that the woodcock that begins to fly over their house every day is a sign that something is about to change. And when Hege falls in love, disrupting his family life and unbalancing his thoughts, he decides he must face his destiny. "The best Norwegian novel of all time," according to Karl Ove Knausgård.