It's a typical summer night in August. Literature professor Arne and artist Tove are with their children at a summer house in southern Norway. Their friend Egil is staying nearby.
Kathrine, a priest, is on her way home from a seminar, journalist Jostein is out on the town, and his wife, Turid, an assistant nurse, is on the night shift.
Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears blazing in the sky. No one knows what this phenomenon might be.
Is it a star burning itself out? But why, then, has no one seen it before? Is it a brand new star? Life goes on, but not quite as before, as strange things start to happen on the fringes of human existence.
