Stillwater is a quiet town nestled on the banks of the Illinois River. Twelve years ago, Frankie Stapleton left Stillwater to move to Chicago, leaving behind her family, their struggling hardware store, and her fiancé. Now she's back -- an emergency-room nurse with an adrenaline addiction and a string of failed engagements -- to help her pregnant sister, Charlie, and put the past behind her, once and for all.But within minutes of arriving at Stillwater General Hospital to see her sister, Frankie walks into an emergency room overloaded with a busload of crash victims. Amidst the chaos, she sees a lone man suffering cardiac arrest outside the emergency room bay. With no one to spare him a passing glance, Frankie acts to save the man's life, despite the fact that she's not licensed at Stillwater General and her priorities should lie with her sister up in the maternity ward where her pregnancy has taken a dangerous turn.After leaving the man in stable condition with the hospital staff, Frankie finally makes it to Charlie's bedside. But mere hours later, her patient is dead, her sister has undergone an emergency cesarean section, and Frankie has been threatened with a malpractice lawsuit.Something's not right in Stillwater, and Frankie suspects her patient didn't die of natural causes. With her career on life support and a growing rift between Frankie and the family she left behind so many years before, Frankie must catch a killer to clear her name. But first she has to prove there even is a killer.