It took sixteen years and more student loans than he could ever hope to repay, but he made it. He is now a doctor, and not just any doctor, a surgeon. It says so in black and white on his diploma.

James Michael Hughes, MD

Now, there’s nothing left to do but enjoy a well-deserved vacation with his fiancée, Nancy, before taking a position with the Veterans Administration hospital.

At least that was the plan before a mysterious gift—a pristine condition Civil War era surgical kit—sends him on a life-or-death, cross-country race for survival.

Along the way, James and Nancy are joined by Franklin, a young Native American man sent to warn him that his life is in danger. Calvin Coolidge, curator of The Coolidge Museum of Medical Knowledge and an expert on the tools held within the surgical kit. And Clayton Caruthers, a mysterious man who may hold the key to the surgical kit’s violent past, and the secrets that live deep inside its sharpened blades and bone handles.