Mary applies to all of nearby colleges and gets turned down and even applies to a doctor to be an apprentice but he turns her down as well.
Then a post in the paper states that the Union is looking for women to be nurses for the soldiers who get harmed in the war so she takes off for Washington D.C. despite being too young for the requested age. When she gets there, she is immediately turned down because of her age so instead she starts touring the hospitals on her own and offering her services. It is at one run down hospital where she finds her services welcome - but she is more of a maid than a nurse. She washes sheets, takes out slop buckets, washes the floor, etc. along with doing the duties of a nurse.
But it is here that she is eventually given the opportunity to shine and she becomes a surgeon. This is a very compelling story set against the Confederate war about one woman's desire to make something of herself. I really enjoyed this book because of all the obstacles that the character Mary had to overcome to become a surgeon.
Rating: 10 / 10
ISBN: 9780670021673
Publisher: Viking
Edition: 1st Edition