All Margaret wants is a sister, a dog, and, most important of all, her mama's permission to study medicine so she can be a doctor like her papa.

"Doctoring's no kind of life for a woman," Mama says. Margaret's papa is the only doctor in the whole Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and he faces countless perils every day.

Still, Margaret holds tight to her dreams . . . until a terrible virus breaks out, threatening her plans, her community, and, worst of all, her family. Suddenly it's up to Margaret to make the right choice.

When the influenza epidemic of 1918 comes to Vermont, eleven-year-old Margaret, who has always wanted to be a physician, finds out what doctoring is like.