Superintendent of Nurses Julia Stimson must recruit sixty-five nurses to relieve the battle-worn British, months before American troops are ready to be deployed. She knows the nurses will face a challenging situation, but nothing could have prepared her for the chaos that awaits when they arrive in Rouen, France. When trainloads of soldiers stricken by a mysterious respiratory illness arrive, overwhelming the hospital's limited resources and threatening the health of her staff, Julia faces an unthinkable choice - to step outside the bounds of her profession and risk the career she has fought so hard for, or to watch the people she cares for most die in her arms.