Deceptively gentle, Margaret Sutherland's stories hide an undercurrent of sensuality, grit and purpose. Here are seven stories with a medical or nursing unifying theme, which take on the challenging life stages - from infancy to ageing and death. The bedside manner of a charge nurse, abrasive humour from patients ravaged with pain, and hard-edged pragmatic action take the reader behind the bed curtains in hospitals and homes where all stories are personal and heart-catching.