It's based off of one of Kurt Cobain's personal favorite books, the 1985 novel "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" by the German author Patrick Suskind. It's set in Revolutionary period France (late 1700's), and tells the story of a young man born with no scent on his own body, but with a supremely gifted sense of smell. Having grown up abused and isolated because he was considered abnormal for having no scent, he comes to become an apprentice to a perfume-maker, seeking to make the perfect perfume that would finally make him human. In doing so, however, he turns to murder, killing young women in order to take their scent.
Cobain liked the novel because he related to the main character's isolation and alienation from society. Kurt also had something of an interest in the aesthetics of scents, and, according to an interview, said that he had at one point considered opening a perfume shop after he quit being a rock star.
