While a shocking series of crimes occur in a community along the Miramichi River, the life of Betty, a waitress in her thirties, takes an unexpected turn. She will not make her debut as a singer on the world stage after all but in her hometown that she had been planning to leave for a long time.

Things appear to be looking up for a cash-strapped, regional hospital when it hires a reputedly brilliant cardiac surgeon to head up its pediatric cardiac surgery unit. But when increasing numbers of children begin dying on the operating table, the unit's top O.R. nurse begins to suspect that the new surgeon is not as experienced as everyone has been lead to believe. She finds herself alone, faced with jeopardizing the career she loves by taking on the powers that be and blowing the whistle on the influential surgeon and the harrowing goings-on at the hospital.