In the arena of life and death, the world's most brilliant doctors and scientists vie desperately - and ruthlessly - for the ultimate prize: the Nobel.

Adam Coopersmith is a gifted and compassionate physician. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, he meets Anya, a Russian émigrée, and falls in love for the first time - only to have his career nearly destroyed.

Sandy Raven is a cutting-edge researcher whose devotion is matched only by his genius. Yet as he makes his greatest discovery, he experiences his most profound betrayal. Will he choose to live a lie or abandon his dream to seek new, more worldly prizes?

Isabel da Costa. A child prodigy, she owes all her success to her father, but though she becomes a brilliant physicist, she can't capture her lost childhood. Ultimately she is torn between the father and the young man who holds the key to her happiness, until a shocking revelation explodes her world.