Thread: Question about ls -l command!!!

Hi All,
While doing ls -l in linux prompt , it displays in the format permission no.of-links user owner no.of-bytes date time name
I have doubt in no.of-links.Actually empty directory contains 2 links and ordinary files contain 1 link.
Why it does act like this?What are the links?
Could anybody explain this little briefly?

Thanks,
Rajisankar.