What if they gave a plague and only men came? A mysterious plague hits the southeastern United States. No one can determine its origin, and no cure is available. Only men experience symptoms: severe hypothermia, frostbite, blurred vision, and confusion. As epidemiologists treat the afflicted and public-health researchers investigate the cause, an astonishing fact emerges about the victims of the illness. The malady has a social impact that nobody could have foreseen.