When a beloved family member suffers a crippling burn which no one in Germany in 1900 can heal, young Olevia Landsmann begins her quest to help him. Her journey takes her to America where against all odds she is accepted into the new Johns Hopkins school of Medicine. Battling extreme prejudice against women from establishment doctors and the legal profession she fights to do groundbreaking research on cadavers, discovering new surgical procedures that could eliminate pain. With the help and love of those close to her she proves the hard won secrets of the dead can save the living. In the process of healing others she heals her own emotional wounds.