For poverty-stricken farm laborer Jan the birth of his daughter Klara gives life a new meaning; his devotion to her develops into an obsession that excludes all else. We are taken from the miracle of a newborn child and a father's love of his baby girl into a fantasy world emerging as a result of extreme external pressures in which Jan creates for himself the role of Emperor of Portugallia. Yet this seemingly mad world generates surprising insights and support. Described as 'perhaps the most private of Selma Lagerlf's books' the novel takes us deep into a father-daughter relationship that carries the seeds of tragedy within it almost from the start.