Kim Pelis uses a wide range of French and Tunisian archival materials and a close reading of Nobel Prize-winning bacteriologist Charles Nicolle's scientific papers and philosophical treatises to explore the relationship of science and medicine to society and culture in the first third of the twentieth century.

Prelude: The Substance of Shadows
Introduction: The Door of the Sadiki
Staring at the Sea: Nicolle and the Pasteur Institute of Tunis
The Threshold of Civilization: Typhus in Tunisia
Light & Shadow: Lousy War and Fractured Peace
Alliances: "Emperor of the Mediterranean"?
Invisible Forces: or, Action at a Distance
Reservoir Docs: Birth, Life, and Death of Infectious Disease
Mosaics of Power: Confronting Paris
At Home with My Shadows: Patrie de Nomade