About the title
The story takes place in Denmark at the end of the 19th century. Peter is an ambitious young man from a religious family who leaves his Jutland village for the capital to get an engineering education. In Copenhagen, Peter calls himself Per and conceives a grand engineering project — the construction of a canal system in western Denmark. In the city, the young man grows close to a wealthy Jewish family and seduces the eldest of the daughters. But despite his successes, Per still suffers from childhood traumas and the patriarchal norms imposed on him by his priest father...