Heaven and Hell is a novel of a man's driven life, one of overarching ambition. Here, Garven Wilsonhulme, would-be neurosurgeon, enters medical school and learns about the grim realities of competing for his place in a class where 50% of the students will be gone by the time of graduation. He makes life-long friends and enemies and faces for the first time what it is to be a student of the human condition and what life as a physician will hold for him. He learned a mnemonic ditty for the bones of the wrist: "Never Lower Tillie's Pants, Grandmother Might Come Home" and how to save a boy dying from meningitis. In Heaven and Hell, Garven is first introduced to the gripping world of neurosurgery by the man who becomes his mentor. That meeting proves to be life changing.