As the traffic light turns green, much to the surprise of drivers and pedestrians, "[the] car at the head of the middle lane has stopped" and does not move ahead.

Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author, Jose Saramago, starts his astonishing narration with the inexplicable event of a man struck blind while driving home from work one normal day. "[There] must be some mechanical fault, a loose accelerator pedal, a gear lever that has struck," but none of these technical problems are the cause of the car's prolonged halt. The driver inside starts shouting and "to judge by the movement of his mouth he appears to be repeating some words, not one word but three, as turns out to be the case when someone finally manages to open the door, I am blind."

Thus begins the tale of a city where large numbers of people go blind inexplicably...