Busy putting in stitches and bandaging lumberjacks' injuries, young Dr. Thomas Parks has no idea that his worst enemy is lurking in the sleepy village of Port McKinney in the spring of 1892. When one of the working girls at the Clarissa Hotel is brought to the Clinic desperately ill, Thomas's newly arrived associate wastes no time in making the diagnosis—Asian Cholera has somehow found this back water near Puget Sound. The cholera strikes viciously and kills in days, sometimes even hours. It soon becomes apparent that Thomas and his clinic have neither the supplies nor the means to provide effective treatment for the outbreak, and in hours, they are swamped. Afraid for the safety of his wife and daughter and all those close to him, Thomas still is driven by professional curiosity about the contagion's origins, especially when it appears that one of his own nurses is in some way responsible. Before he can mount a truly effective defense, the battle spreads, threatening the very life of