It is the spring of 1997. At age 67, Harry King has practiced medicine in Middletown, Georgia, for thirty-five years, the last twelve as medical director for Hamilton Memorial Hospital. In that time, he has seen marvelous advances in medical technique and disappointing developments in the way the health care system is operated -- not always for the benefit of the patient. This year, the beauty of springtime in the small southern town is marred for Harry by a series of problems at the hospital. One after the other, three of the members of his medical staff behave in a manner most undoctorly, each causing incidents that must be brought to the executive committee for action. And the constant challenge of dealing with the deluge of government controls and battles against health maintenance organizations to protect the health of patients has worn Harry down. Though he receives strong support from Ray Elliott, the competent hospital CEO, and Sarah Miller, the exceptional director of nursing, Harry decides it is time for him to retire.
But medicine is not quite done with Harry yet, and events propel him into a public forum where he will be able to celebrate the advances he has seen during his career in medicine and raise alarms about the path down which it travels today. The reader joins Harry in the last eight weeks of his career, feeling the frustration, the anger, and ultimately the reward that comes from remaining a true son of Hippocrates. Harry King, MD, ends his career as he began it: trying to make a difference.