Against the background of northern Europe in the nineteenth century, 'Dina's Son' is the passionate and haunting story of Benjamin, heir to the harshly beautiful estate of Reisnes in the north of Norway. From childhood he is both bewitched and terrified by his mother, the flamboyant and elemental Dina. Forever in his dreams is the image of the blood-spattered head of his mother's Russian lover, and the secret of Leo's death binds mother and son together in a frightening but unbreakable bond.

When Dina abandons him, Benjamin begins his own obsessive odyssey - to school at Tromso, then to Copenhagen to study medicine, to the bloodbath of the Danish-Prussian wars as a medical auxiliary, and finally to Berlin to search longingly for his powerful mother. Always, because of Dina, he is consumed by the mystery of women - their bodies, their smell, their smiles. But, in maturity, he knows he is Benjamin of Reisnes and it is to that magical golden and icy world he will always return.