A sprawling novel that moves through human history from the Stone Age to the present. A talking fish, the flounder, advises men for thousands of years, until women put it on trial for the harm its counsel has done. The narrator follows a series of cooks, from prehistoric times to modern Danzig and Germany, and so tells a history of food, power and the relations between men and women. It is comic, earthy and full of recipes, and reflects on how history looks from the kitchen.