First the atomic war broke out, new machines were made, dead birds appeared. In 1999, a bacteriological warfare began, there were sandstorms and giant locust infestations; the human tissue was transformed and a new being, once legendary, now real, emerged: the vampire. Only Robert Neville, the last man on Earth, remains unpolluted, living in constant struggle with the new inhabitants of the planet.
During the Crusades, Vercors betroths his beautiful daughter Violaine to Jacques. She cannot marry Jacques because she has contracted leprosy, so Jacques marries her younger sister Mara. Jacques and Mara's first child dies soon after its birth, and Mara begs Violaine to return from seclusion to restore the child to life.
The term caustic designates optically the envelope of light rays undergoing reflection or refraction on a curved and shiny surface.
