"Monsieur Bang, you are the first impressionist author in the world." Claude Monet.

Katinka is the stationmaster's wife in a sleepy Danish provincial town and her domestic languor is disrupted by the arrival of Huus, the new foreman on a nearby farm. Unlike her boorish husband Huus is attentive and sensitive and despite her best efforts Katinka falls in love with him. Her whole life is turned upside down by an intense passion she had never expected to experience and which has unforeseen consequences.

Katinka is another of Herman Bang's tragic heroines.

In its impressionistic almost cinematic style it is a novel ahead of its time.