Julia Power is a nurse in Ireland during the influenza epidemic. The hospital where she works is overcrowded and she is working with maternity patients who also have the flu. Her life intercepts with Birdie Sweeney, a young, poor destitution girl and a female doctor, Dr. Lynn who is considered to be a political rebel.
The books is very well told and very graphic when it comes to describing what the women must go through, it is heartbreaking, but definitely well written.