In 1980s Chicago, third-year medical student Joan Turner begins her specialty rotations. On her first day in pediatrics, a Code Pink bellows from the overhead sound system for one of the babies assigned to her. And that jarring event is just the beginning. Joan becomes embroiled in a search for the culprits of a baby-stealing ring that targets underprivileged women. While navigating her medical training and growth as a physician, and dodging her way through the hospital tunnel system, Joan becomes a target herself. Joan's dog, her roommate, and a budding relationship with an ophthalmology resident provide support while the mist of the hospital crime scene hangs over her head. Comfort also arrives when Joan's mom, historian and avid birder, introduces time-tinted letters from her great-great-great-aunt Eleanor, the first woman trained in medicine in the United States. Aunt Eleanor provides wisdom and clarity during Joan's ordeal by "dream transporting" her to the 1850s and medicine as practiced at that time.