It has been six years since the events that took place in "Under the Autumn Star" and Knut Pederson (the real name of Knut Hamsun) returns to Captain Falkenberg's estate and meets his old companions and the protagonists of the previous novel. Among them is Mrs. Falkenberg, with whom he is in love. There, the vagabond Hamsun, a voluptuous and carefree character, a symbol of neo-romantic escape, who seeks the joys of simple life and nature wandering in the Norwegian forests and dealing with various jobs, is confronted with a general decline, as reflected in the image of abandonment of Captain's estate and in the audacious erotic customs of its inhabitants.

This novel, which together with "Under the Autumn Star" and "The Last Joy" constitute the so-called "Vagabond Trilogy", marks the author's turn towards a more social disposition expressed through the rejection of the society of that time and the demand for a return to nature and traditional values.