A simple, good-natured village man, amiable to neighbors and children but neglectful of his own chores, wanders into nearby mountains and encounters an uncanny party of rustic figures whose drink puts him into a prolonged enchanted sleep. On awakening he returns to find that many years have passed, the village, its loyalties, and institutions have been transformed, and his family situation has been radically altered. He reenters communal life by recounting his strange experience, and the narrative meditates on the passage of time, collective memory, and the tension between old customs and new social orders.