Odnos propisivača i propisanog oduvijek je, a danas posebno, jedan od središnjih problema koji zaokuplja suvremenoga homo sapiensa. Prosvjetitelj Denis Diderot, enciklopedist, jedna od najmudrijih glava 18. stoljeća, poslužio je Ericu Emmanuelu Schmittu, suvremenom francuskom piscu, kao ishodišna točka, kao čvorište problema o kojem je riječ. Naime, njegovu erotsko-intelektualnu budoarsku zabavu sa slikaricom Annom Therbouche prekida mladi tajnik Enciklopedije viješću da je Voltaire odbio napisati članak o moralu i da ga Diderot još danas mora napisati i predati u tisak. Schmitt dalje vrlo vješto na prizorište dovodi nove likove i njihove moralne probleme i sirotog Diderota izlaže diskrepantnoj poziciji: ono što govori o moralu i ono što čini u potpunom je neskladu.
Diderotovo zavođenje ne ostaje u granicama scenskog svijeta, ono prelazi rampu i spušta se u gledalište. Naime, tekst provocira gledatelja na propitivanje vlastitog morala: Diderot svoje stavove o moralu mijenja od situacije do situacije, a - uvučeni u priču - to, zajedno s njim, čine i gledatelji.
Zbog toga je Diderot lučonoša, libertinac, reakcionar i - naš suvremenik.

One of the central issues the modern Homo sapiens has always dealt with, especially nowadays, is the relationship between the prescriber and the prescribed. For Eric Emmanuel Schmitt, a contemporary French writer, the starting point and the key to this issue was the enlightener and encyclopaedist Denis Diderot, one of the wisest heads of the 18th century. His erotic-and-intellectual boudoir pastime with the painter Anne Therbouche is interrupted by a young secretary of Encyclopaedia who brings the news that Voltaire refused to write an article on morality which Diderot must write on that same day and send it to press. With great skill Schmitt brings new characters and their moral problems on the stage putting the poor Diderot in a discrepant position: what he says about morality and what he does are in a complete disagreement. Diderot's seduction leaves the stage and gets down into the auditorium. In other words, the text provokes the spectators to question their own morality: Diderot changes his attitudes towards morality as situation requires, and together with him, the spectators, being involved in the story, do the same. Diderot is therefore the torchbearer, the libertine, the reactionary and - our contemporary.