When Baroness Valtraute von Bruegen's officer husband's body is severed in two, she is delighted to find that the lower half has been sewn onto the upper body of the humble local captain Ulste. She conceives a child only to see the return of her husband in one piece. A surrealist tale cum political allegory, this novel transports the reader between 18th century Baltic gentry and the narrator's life in the modern world.

Translated by: Kaija Straumanis