Anja Aropalo, a 53-year-old literature professor, made a promise to her husband, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease: she will help him die when he no longer remembers. As her husband gradually sheds his memories, Anja faces the heavy burden of fulfilling her promise.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Anja's niece, high school student Mari, falls in love with her language teacher with all the power of youth. Surprisingly, the teacher reciprocates Mari's feelings. In their unconventional relationship, power, desire, and responsibility intertwine, blurring the lines between right and wrong.

Raja explores the profound questions of humanity with rare maturity. How much responsibility can one take for another person? What place do we fill in the world, and who draws our boundaries? Can law, right action, and desire ever align in a human life? Pulkkinen's keenly observant prose weaves together tragic human fates that intersect and resonate, leaving Raja lingering in the mind for a long time.