Dr. Jack Conley, a medical intern, is mulling his future at a Brooklyn, hospital. Having found that he is not as fond of medicine as he thought he would be, Jack visits his boyhood friend, the hospital chaplain, and was abruptly interrupted when he was suddenly paged to the intensive care unit of the Emergency Room. A fifteen-year-old girl lay there, near death due to a botched back alley abortion. Jack is horrified and wanting to protect other women from suffering a similar fate commits to making a difference. But, over time, he becomes busy building a career and forgets this purpose.

Later, when the founder of Planned Parenthood introduces herself, and Jack becomes very much involved in a romantic relationship with, Jennifer, a Junior Resident on his staff he becomes involved in a multitude of moral and life issues. Meanwhile, Roe v. Wade, pro-life groups, Vatican II (Humanae Vitae), and the role of the pharmaceutical industry in fetal stem cell research are dividing the country - dangerously so, as Jack and Jennifer are about to discover.