A mysterious virus, starting from a humble public urinal in Athens, puts the entire planet under its control. It is a reformer virus that transforms all people into artists. Inspiration, expression, beauty are the new ideals guiding humanity; wars are silenced, the thirst for money and power subsides, political and religious fanaticisms weaken, and many believe that humanity is entering a truly Golden Age for the first time.

However, things could not be so simple, as this sweet illness, which everyone considers a blessing, had not yet revealed all its cards… A book that began as a novella but ended up as a novel, a book that can be read in one way or the other.

"This change in perspective drastically altered his attitude towards Artists. He felt pity for them, the same pity he began to feel for himself, because he realized that he had been ill himself, deeply, even before the virus appeared; he understood that every artist is nothing more than a patient who, amidst the flare-up of their symptoms, searches in vain for a cure, and he was now certain that, no matter how much some of Art's works might deserve endless admiration, they deserved only a crown of sorrow, made of straw, to be crowned."