Part I: An abrupt introduction to Spanish influenza
The great shadow
Part 2: Spanish influenza: The first wave
spring and summer, 1918
The advance of the influenza virus
Three explosions
Africa, Europe, and America
Part 3: The second and third waves
The United Sates begins to take note
Spanish influenza sweeps the country
Flu in Philadelphia
Flu in San Francisco
Flu at sea on the voyage to France
Flu and the American expeditionary force
Flu and the Paris Peace Conference
Part 4: Measurements, research, conclusions, and confusions
Statistics, definitions, and speculation
Samoa and Alaska
Research, frustration, and the isolation of the virus
Where did the Flu of 1918 go?
Part 5: Afterword
An inquiry into the peculiarities of human memory.