Born to a farming family, James knows plowing the soil must not be his destiny. He feels the call to care for the people of his isolated mountain community. After graduating from medical school in 1890, he returns to his north Georgia valley, marries beautiful Mary Alice Campbell, and begins what he thinks will be the ordinary life of a country doctor. What he could not have foreseen are demands that he draw deeply from the well of courage to save his people from gross incompetence, exceptional evil, and a worldwide pandemic.

In the tradition of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, James is an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. His calling to medicine is his greatest strength and his Achilles Heel. It is the driving force in his and Mary Alice's lives, even when the consequences are bittersweet. How each of these very human people comes to terms with its impact is the heart of Gilead's Physician.