This is a novel about doctors: what they do to each other and to their patients. And what their patients do to them. The heroes are young doctors, fresh out of medical school and taking the blame for disease and random disaster. — The central figure is William Ryan, possessor of a brand-new M.D. and defender of some old and precious illusions. Ryan is a romantic extremist, obsessive in his work, in his play, and in matters of the heart. Everything has always come easily to Ryan. He is handsome, he is charming, he is intelligent. He coasted through a brilliant academic and athletic career at college. He graduated at the top of his class at medical school. The only thing standing between Ryan and a distinguished scientific career is two years of on-the-job training at New York's most prestigious teaching hospital, the Tower. No sooner has Ryan begun his internship at the Tower when he embarks upon three separate emotional relationships, involving, respectively, a beautiful Eurasian nurse; a young patient dying of Hodgkin's disease; and Diana Hayes, an ambitious and calculating female cardiologist. To further complicate his dual internship in medicine and love is Ryan's nonstop battle with the Tower's bureaucracy and his bitter feud with the vindictive chairman of the Department of Medicine, Maxwell Baptist-a feud that threatens to end Ryan's medical career before it has even begun. This is the gripping story of William Ryan's passage from medical student to intern to junior resident to resident, and the romantic and professional pressures he must face as his life moves into a relentless collision course. Ryan's baptism of fire is set against the realistic background of behind-the-scenes drama of a metropolitan hospital.