A confusing chronology of one fatal mistake. How often do we reproach ourselves, replay the situation in our heads, “but if I had done this and not that, everything would have been different.” The whole life of the main character comes down to the phrase “if I bought a hamburger” - it has been spinning in his thoughts for 30 years, day and night, without a break for lunch. A strange boy, from childhood placed in conditions of observation of death, after the fatal, If he accidentally makes a mistake, he will blame himself for everything. A wild desire to spy on funerals from under the drawn curtain, a painful friendship with the funeral director’s daughter - a girl with cold hands, and desperate thoughts that if he pretends that he is not afraid of her fingers, then she will come to his funeral and he will not be alone - all this is just a starting point for the final frame, after which time will stop. Brautigan writes affectionately, as if patting the head of all his extraordinary characters who have sunk to the bottom. And this boy, sitting in a cheap diner and shedding tears - grown up, but disappeared after that notorious uneaten hamburger, will remain orphaned and rejected. Note: the translation is taken from the "Language Shop" and may differ from the final edition.