The classical Morse theory proceeds by considering sublevel sets f^{−1}(−∞,a] of a Morse function f:M→R, where M is a smooth finite-dimensional manifold. In this paper, we study the topology of the level sets f^{−1}(a) and give conditions under which the topology of f^{−1}(a) changes when passing a critical value. We show that for a general class of functions, which includes all exhaustive Morse functions, the topology of a regular level f^{−1}(a) always changes when passing a single critical point, unless the index of the critical point is half the dimension of the manifold M. When f is a natural Hamiltonian on a cotangent bundle, we obtain more precise results in terms of the topology of the base space. (Counter-)examples and applications to celestial mechanics are also discussed.