Plot Summary

Gabriel and Elias are two very different brothers. Gabriel is a worn-down university professor and Elias is a man whose only concerns are women and trivial knowledge. During a lecture, Gabriel receives a phone call: their father is dead. Things take a turn when the brothers learn through a videotape recorded by their now-late father, that he in fact wasn't their biological father. Gabriel and Elias discover that their biological father lives on the island Ork. They set out to the island and here they meet their real family, but their first meeting doesn't go as expected. Gabriel and Elias are stranded in the marshland of Ork, where they meet the mayor of Ork and his daughter Ellen, a neurotic woman who hates her life, herself, her father, and the island. Surrounded by abnormal people, Gabriel and Elias discover the truth about themselves and their relatives: a truth that while paralyzing them also sets them free.—Anders Thomas Jensen