"It was in the early sixties, when our end in Pajala was paved," begins Mikael's story. Young Mikael and his friend Niila live in the Swedish north, on the Finnish-Swedish border. The novel follows their growing up in the mid-sixties and seventies, when modern civilization begins to invade the traditional life of people in the far north, where they still firmly believe in centuries-old superstitions: a paved road, the first gramophones, Elvis records, a home-grown rock band, and other novelties. The story of two generations and two different views on life, with numerous unusual and funny twists, is spiced with the sophisticated humor we already know from the works of other Scandinavian writers.