"The plot opens in 2020. The plague has been raging since the 1980s. In New York, where Roberts lives and is working to find a vaccine for the disease, hundreds are infected every day. The infected are sent to “The Center for Healing” – a fenced-in zone that resembles a penal colony to which opponents of the regime are also sent. Nobody from either group ever returns to the Healthy Area, and no one knows what becomes of them. The rest of the city residents live in an Orwellian situation, tested every day for the virus. Drugs, alcohol and homosexual relations are totally banned, and extramarital relations are considered a serious hygienic violation. Clubs and bars are considered abominations. Psychotherapy is considered obscene because of the possibility that unacceptable erotic thoughts might be expressed. Porn films feature robots in the starring roles. The daily health news is broadcast every night and housewives are addicted to shows about cleaning products and disinfectants. People are surveilled and phone calls and computer files are tracked. The hygiene status that everyone aspires to maintain is extremely fragile. As soon as antibodies against the virus appear in your blood — a sign of infection — you’re living on borrowed time. One day Roberts discovers that for the first time in years, the guinea pigs he’s using in his experiments are surviving much longer than anticipated: The cure he vowed to find for the disease following his brother’s death suddenly seems to be within reach. But when clinical trials in humans begin, strange things start to happen. Why are the participants in the trial dying one after the other? Is it an unexpected side effect of the drug therapy, or is there a more sinister reason – does someone wants the trial to fail, and stymie hope of a cure?"