Why are we not slaves to our genes and how do we differ from chimpanzees? What is epigenetics and why does the tenderness during breastfeeding determine how a newborn mouse will behave throughout its life? How does a monogamous rat transform into an unrestrained Don Juan and how do substances like dopamine, serotonin, or cocaine affect our behavior? Why will we always be the losers in the war against microbes? What do the "primitive" single-celled organisms that thrive in boiling waters refer to? What information do the space devices we have sent give us about life on other planets?

The book seeks answers to all of the above questions and many more. Each of its 19 short essays is like a fairy tale, as Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel writes in the preface. With a narrative style - often in the first person - and a contemplative, sometimes poetic mood, it transports us to a garden full of wonders, the invisible garden of molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, and genetics - the garden of self-awareness.