During a steamboat trip between Stockholm and Lidköping, a sergeant named Albert falls in love with the glazier's daughter Sara Videbeck.But Sara insists that they live in an egalitarian marriage without a formal marriage ceremony and without shared property (today known as living apart together). Sara asks at the end of the book: Går allt detta an, Albert? (Is all this acceptable, Albert?) The answer is: Det går an (It is acceptable).The novel is primarily an attack on lifelong marriage as an institution and the inability of women to become financially independent. The book's social tendency aroused lively debate and "det-går-an literature" became a concept. One consequence however was that Almqvist was forced out of his post as rector at the New Elementary School, Stockholm.