In 1350, when Europe is recovering from the Black Death, the future pope Gregorius XI visits the Tuscan painter Adriano de Robertis to destroy his last work, the blasphemous Bearded Virgin. On February 25 1970, the American painter Mark Rothko slits his wrists in his New York Studio. And on September 11 2001, as the world enters the Age of Uncertainty, the Russian painter Vsévolod Semiasin writes a letter that reveals the reason for his madness.

The story of these three artists, based on an enigma and centred around one principal idea, forms the core of 'La luz is más antiguo que el amor', a book we are told about by a novelist called Bocanegra during three crucial moments: the birth of his vocation, the death of his wife, and his consagration in 2004 as one of the great figures of universal literature.