The novel is a third-person prose account divided into four books: 'Þeir missa sem eiga' ('those who own, lose'); 'Af mold' ('about earth'); 'Leitin að lífshamingju' ('the search for happiness in life'); and 'Til himna' ('to the skies').
These are divided into short, untitled sections with a pixellated greyscale image representing the fungus whose growth is key to the plot.
In the estimation of Ólafur Guðsteinn Kristjánsson, 'the decision to name neither characters nor the place is good, giving the work a certain exotic touch, even if it is clear what the model for the city is'.
[3] The story focuses on the one-handed man, and is a character study of this self-conscious, somewhat anxious and melancholic figure.
After living abroad and working as a portrait artist, he has moved home to his mother's following the death of his father seven months before the story takes place.