The heart of a modern hospital is the pathology laboratory. Surgery waits, while the doctor with the last test tube, the microscope, the scrap of human tissue, makes the final diagnosis which may hold life in a balance - the diagnosis which must always be correct.

This is the novel of one such man, Dr. Joe Pearson, aging, tyrannical, proud of his infallibility, fighting with all the cunning of his long years the bid of a talented young doctor for the most powerful position of all - head of the whole hospital.

This novel is not for the squeamish. It takes you into the operating rooms and laboratories where brain and sinew, raw guts and beating hearts are exposed under the hands of the doctors whose skills mean life or death.