I love this author. He is well informed about medicine in general and reading his works is an education in history as well. I finish his books in two days at the cost of my sleep!
The book relates the lives of a father and then his son who are both doctors. The father ventures into the frontier of Illinois and makes a home for himself and works as a country doctor. He becomes friends with the Indians and his various neighbors with different cultures and religions. The Civil War comes into play when the doctor volunteers to work with the North. The son is hearing impaired and shows how he has to overcome his disability to become a doctor and take over his fathers practice.
The sequel to Gordon's The Physician was possibly better than its predecessor.
