A film director and a screenwriter (played by Lars von Trier and his actual screenwriter, Niels Vørsel) research and develop a screenplay in which a deadly virus spreads through the entire world. However, like their protagonist, the duo do not notice that a real epidemic is developing around them.

Lars von Trier takes a starring role in his second feature, a metafictional—and metaphysical—exploration of creative culpability. If the title suggests a resonance with our contemporary condition, Epidemic soon reveals itself as a playfully ironic portrait of the artist-philosopher as a young man.