The Emperor of Scent

A man was born with an uncannily powerful nose, able to distinguish the components of any scent, from the world's most refined perfumes to the air on the New York City subways. A scientist, he kept his powers to himself, concentrating on other fields. But when, for the love of it, he began to write reviews of fragrances, and those reviews took the perfume world by storm, everything changed. The secret world of scent creation opened up, and he discovered something astonishing: No one understands how our noses work. Billions and billions of dollars are spent creating the scents all around us in a manner that amounts to glorified trial and error. The solution to the mystery of every other human sense had led to a Nobel Prize, as well as vast riches. Why should smell be any different? This man gave his life to this great riddle. And in the end, incredibly, after an epic struggle, he solved it.

Then things really got interesting.