In the winter of 1664－1665, the bitter cold fell on London in the days before 25 December. Above the city, an unusually bright comet (彗星) shot across the sky, exciting much prediction of a snowstorm. Outside the city wall, a woman's death was announced and she died of a disease that was spreading in that area. Her house was locked up.

Following that, the virus that had killed the woman would go on to kill nearly 100,000 people living in and around London— almost a third of those who did not flee.

In The Great Plague: The Story of London's Most Deadly Year, historian A. Lloyd Moote and microbiologist Dorothy C. Moote provide a deeply informed account of this plague year. Reading the book, readers are taken from the palaces of the city's wealthiest citizens to the poor areas where the vast majority of Londoners were living, and to the surrounding countryside. The Mootes point out that, even at the height of the plague, the city did not fall into chaos. Doctors and nurses remained in the city to care for the sick; city officials tried their best to fight the crisis with all the legal tools; and commerce continued even as businesses shut down.

To describe life and death in and around London, the authors focus on the experiences of nine individuals. Through their letters and diaries, the Mootes offer fresh descriptions of key issues in the history of the Great Plague: how different communities understood and experienced the disease; how medical and government bodies reacted; how well the social order held together; the economic and moral dilemmas people faced when debating whether to flee the city; and the nature of the material, social, and spiritual resources supporting those who remained. Based on humanity (人性), the authors offer a masterful portrait of a city and its inhabitants who were attacked by and daringly resisted unimaginable horror.