Hypericum follows, in parallel, Carter's landmark 1920s discovery in Egypt and Teresa and Ruben's passionate yet tormented love affair, set in 1990s Berlin. Between Egypt and Berlin, the two eras confront and intertwine in a story that has at its center the hypericum, or St. John's wort, a plant with unusual properties....This sublimely romantic journey into Egyptian grandeur, the vibrations of youth, and the anxieties of the heart is a masterpiece of graphic fiction by one of the world's great contemporary graphic novelists, about how the strongest bonds are created by the passage of time.