In an overcrowded and dilapidated hospital in Kiev (Ukraine), English neurosurgeon Henry Marsh and his Ukrainian colleague Igor Petrovitch struggle to help a host of patients with severe epilepsy or life-threatening brain tumours. Forced to operate in difficult and challenging circumstances, Henry and Igor must share their patients' most fervent hopes and deepest fears, and face the human consequences of the life-and-death choices which they, as surgeons, are often compelled to make.