An incomprehensible transformation needs to be understood: from the joyful eroticism of broad daylight, celebrated in ancient Greece, to the banishment of sexual acts into the dark, fearful, hidden realm among the Romans. Where better to trace this than in Pompeii - where the terror of earthquakes and molten lava has preserved for us, at the moment of death, the fascinating image of the collision between these two civilizations? Starting from the disturbing frescoes in Pompeii, Pascal Quignard tells a story about death, ancient painting, and Western sexuality, leading to a completely new perspective on the Roman world: as the origin of disgust, horror, melancholy, and puritanism.