Mickey Norton's dream is to become a Neurosurgeon. He craves the respect and the stature that he thinks comes with a career as a brain surgeon. He worked hard and was accepted to a Neurosurgery residency program in Southern California. Slowly over the course of his first year, Mickey realizes that the pedestal that physicians in general and neurosurgeons in particular are placed upon is brittle and cracked. His disillusion is magnified by the unpredictable personalities of his mentors, their surgical misadventures and moral lapses. Mickey grows up in the social stew of the Medical Center and the choices he makes leave him with his own moral dilemmas that will eventually reveal his own character. And, that, it turns out, is more complex than even Mickey suspected.