This book is the story of Norman Bethune, a prominent Canadian thoracic surgeon. During the 1930s he became a convinced communist, which led him to the fron lines of the wars in Spain and China. He arrived in China about six months after the start of the major Sino-Japanese War. He made his way to Yenan where, in discussion with Mao Tse-tun, he advanced his theory that fully 75 percent of serious battle casualties would survive if operated on immediately. Mao commissionied Bethune to organize a mobile operating unit, and this brought Bethune to the "center of the war" in the interior of norhtern China.