Hreggvidur, an old right-winger, dies of a heart attack while trying to publish an article in The Conservative Paper. Hreggvidur has been a regular contributor for decades and he disagrees with the new editorial policy. Thus he rises up from the dead to terrorize the editor into publishing the article.

Various events of importance to the nation and to individual persons during the cold war and from about 1960 emerge as fragments of the memory of a little boy learning about life, about divorce, military occupation, the Beatles, little girls and death.