Ichito Kurihara is a doctor of internal medicine who works at 24-hour clinic in Nagano Prefecture. He frequently consults about areas outside his speciality and has been known to go three days running without sleep. He manages to get by in his practice with the support of his loving photographer wife, an eccentric nurse, and a surgeon friend. One day, his alma mater invites him to come back to the medical school to teach, a career move he knows would mean more time off, more time with his wife. It would also give him the opportunity to study the latest in medical advances. On the other hand, he feels there should be a doctor in his district who deals with the hopeless cases that larger hospitals have abandoned. He makes his final decision after he recieves a surprising gift from Azumi, an elderly patient dying of cancer. This is the first novel in a series.