Dr. Sarah Whitaker is burned out by the stress of training to be a surgeon. Her boyfriend prescribes a remedy: They will spend a year in Africa doing feel-good medical work, and will climb Mount Kilimanjaro. When he backs out, she embarks on the adventure alone. Sarah is stunned by the overwhelming need for health care.  Living conditions are primitive and life is perilous in the remote village where she teaches tribal birth attendants. Time and distance strain her relationship with the man back home and she it torn between loyalty to him and a new love. If she survives the year, her life will never be the same.