The book involves 6 - 8 medical resident doctors with an added surgical resident and a few other characters who get together every few weeks to discuss the important things in life as suggested by the table of contents.This occurs through about a year of their training. There is some talk about their work as doctors separating the discussions to break up the talks. There is also a love interest between the main character, Joe, and his fiancee, Anna, who starts the book off with Anna's death. The book back tracks a year after the openinbg and then progresses back to the incident that starts the book.