Dedicated and ambitious, Emma Swann is about to start a gruelling year as a surgical registrar at the prestigious Mount teaching hospital. She's excited to join her adored older brother Andy in pursuing the same career as their father, an eminent surgeon who made his name at The Mount. But the pressure of living up to his distinguished reputation is nothing compared with the escalating stress Emma experiences as a registrar. It's an arduous, unremitting slog of twenty-hour days, punishing schedules, life and death decisions—and very little assistance, instruction or support from her superiors, who waste no time pointing out just how superior they are. Amidst a background culture of humiliation and bullying, being a woman just makes things worse: misogyny is rife and Emma is subjected to other, more insidious, kinds of male attention. As Emma battles overwork, exhaustion and increasing disillusion, she has less and less ability and time to care for her patients' welfare, and that of herself and those she loves. 'So beautiful. A fitting tribute to our lives and work, and to those who we have lost.' DR RUTH MITCHELL, neurosurgeon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.