Allen boarded the elevator before he realized a hospital security guard was already aboard. He quickly faced the door as the elevator started up. Just before it reached the fifth floor, he heard the static of the guard's walkie-talkie. An unintelligible message crackled. The elevator slowly came to a stop. He leapt out of the half open door,raced to the ICU and glanced back.The guard had not gotten off the elevator. Allen breathed deeply. He was running scared, but from what? He had done nothing—or had he?

When seven-year-old Angela Harris is rushed to a hospital emergency room in an unexplained coma, Dr. Ben Allen, the young pediatrician assigned to her case, welcomes the diagnostic challenge.

His enthusiasm turns to frustration when confronted with the child's overbearing father, her phlegmatic mother, her doting but senile great-aunt, a knife-happy surgeon, and a hospital administrator who values fund-raising above patient care.

Consumed by his efforts to save Angela before she falls victim to her mysterious illness, Allen must do so in the face of a series of events that threaten to end his budding career.