François Schuiten

Mr. Abeels runs a flower shop about to enter modernity: imagine, through the miracle of plastics, flowers that never fade! His novelty is snatched up by the ambitious city planners of an all-new Brusel. No more lack of hygiene! No more dusty old buildings! All is razed and enormous new skyscrapers are erected at …

Shortly after arriving in the Center for Cartography, where he works to further the expansionist goals of his government, Roland meets a young woman kept by the center, whose body is covered with barely perceptible lines.