Upon her return to New York from the Ozark Mountains where she had tried to help the mountain folks, Cheney Duvall is ready for lighter duty. Shell go into private practice with Devlin Buchanan, the handsome doctor who had proposed to her, and work with the citys wealthy and elite. But an outbreak of cholera is imminent. The steamship Virginia is on its way back from London where a cholera outbreak has been reported, and its just a matter of time before the deadly disease begins spreading in New York. Her past work with the underclasses has left a deep mark on Cheneys soul. Can she be content in a world of high society even as the citys poor are facing the horrors of a deadly pestilence?