Tristan found a dead cat on the corner of his street, hit by a car and left there in the gutter to rot in the rain. The young man is shaken, and the image of the dead cat begins to haunt him.

In the 28th century, Valerian and Laureline are special operatives charged with keeping order throughout the human territories. On assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two undertake a mission to Alpha, an ever-expanding metropolis where species from across the universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence, and cultures. At the center of Alpha is a mysterious dark force which threatens the peaceful existence of the City of a Thousand Planets, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

This is the story of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was awarded for research that started in 1980 and involved electrons, coffee cups, donuts... and a hairy ball. Or how a small, curious experiment eventually led to a whole new field of research.