The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Moshfegh, Ottessa. Lapvona. Penguin Press, 2022.

Moshfegh’s novel is organized in five seasons, and chronicles a year-and-change in the life of Marek, a young shepherd’s boy who through a series of strange circumstances finds himself the adoptive son of Villiam, Lord of Lapvona. The novel is narrated in third-person voice and follows the perspectives of several characters, including Marek, his father Jude, his mother Agata, his adoptive father Villiam, the village herbalist Ina, and others.

The novel begins with Marek living a humble life as the son of a shepherd named Jude. Marek is ugly and red-headed, mostly ignored or looked upon with scorn by the other villagers. Marek is deeply pious and internalizes the beatings he receives from his father as a way of bringing himself closer to God and gaining favor in God’s eyes. Marek spends much of his time with Ina, the blind village wet nurse, who has raised him and breastfed him since he was born after helping his mother Agata flee to an abbey.

One day, after visiting Ina, Marek encounters Jacob, the son of Lapvona’s lord Villiam. Marek tells Jacob to accompany him to some nearby cliffs so that they can look at some birds. When they reach the top of the cliff, Marek throws a rock at Jacob, and Jacob falls over the edge of the cliff to his death.

Marek confesses to Jude that he has killed Jacob, and leads Jude out to Jacob’s body. Jude insists that they bring the body to Villiam, who will decide how to punish Marek. Villiam proposes to Jude that they trade sons; Jude will take Jacob’s body and bury it, while Villiam will raise Marek as his own. Jude agrees and leaves without a word.

Marek settles into life in the manor and begins to lose his piety. He is tended to by Lispeth, a curmudgeonly young woman who had previously been Jacob’s servant. Lispeth continues to harbor a deep romantic love toward Jacob, and resents Marek.

Down in Lapvona, meanwhile, the villagers are suffering from a terrible drought. Jude journeys down to the lake and watches a blind old man named Klim die. Jude decides to take Klim’s body to prevent the others from eating it. He decides to go to Ina’s cabin, and finds her emaciated and near death when he arrives. Ina insists that they should eat Klim, and after some initial resistance, Jude relents and begins to devour him voraciously.

Marek finds himself resentful of the loss of his piety and decides to steal the robes of the corrupt priest Father Barnabas and make his way down to the village to visit his father. Jude returns home with Klim’s mangled body to find what he mistakes as a priest asleep in Marek’s old bed. Jude flees, and Marek takes Klim’s abandoned body as belonging to his father. While Marek moves to bury the body he believes is his father’s, Jude encounters Agata in the woods in the midst of her escape from the abbey where she has been hiding. Jude rapes her. Agata flees to Villiam’s manor, where she is welcomed as a guest.

At the manor, Villiam’s wife, Dibra, is sick with grief over her son’s death. Jacob is not actually Villiam’s son, but was in fact sired by Dibra and the horseman, Luka. Villiam sends Luka on an errand to a neighboring territory, but intends to have his bandits kill Luka. When Luka goes missing, Dibra leaves on her horse to go looking for him, and never returns. Villiam declares that Dibra’s grief was responsible for the drought, and as he does so it begins to rain.

As the drought lifts, the villagers forget their suffering. Marek attempts to get closer to his mother, but Agata is cold toward him. Villiam decides that he needs to take a new wife, and Father Barnabas suggests Agata. Upon discovering that she is pregnant, Villiam cajoles a hesitant Father Barnabas into declaring that she is carrying a Christ Child. Marek is furious and jealous. Villiam begins planning a wedding, and eventually the pair are married.

In the village, Jude has taken to living like a beggar, and Ina has recovered her health and become an herbalist, even wearing the eyes of Dibra’s dead horse to afford her some sight. A man named Grigor is the only person skeptical of the sudden recovery and the cause of the drought. He harbors ill will toward Villiam and Ina until he is sent to visit Ina. The two of them smoke some cannabis together and Grigor develops an affection for her.

Ina begins to care for Agata. Villiam begins to assume more responsibility and to prepare the manor for the annual Christmas tradition of inviting two families from the village to come for dinner. Father Barnabas participates, but is crumbling under the stress of having declared a child a Christ Child. Father Barnabas comes into possession of a poisoned bottle of wine, and offers it to Lispeth after she rejects him sexually. Grigor’s family visits for Christmas dinner. The meal is terse, and ends with Grigor asking Villiam directly whether he hoarded water during the drought in Lapvona. After Grigor and his family are sent away, Lispeth offers to help Villiam relax by bringing him a bottle of wine. Villiam and Lispeth poison themselves with the wine, and Father Barnabas, convinced the devil has come to take him, hangs himself in his chambers.

Marek becomes Lord of Lapvona. Grigor comes to visit Ina at the manor and finds her completely committed to the Christ Child. Marek enters Agata’s room while Ina is speaking to Grigor to discover that his mother’s corpse has been rotting for some time. He takes the Christ Child and brings it to the cliffs where he sent Jacob to his death.