An American doctor brings her medical expertise to a snowy village in northern India and quickly finds herself in over her head. After her husband, Richard, dies, Mary Davis relocates to the small, rudimentary Himalayan hospital where he once worked, hoping to carry on his medical labor of love. The remote, bare-bones facility is run by Dr. Vargeela, a hero of Richard's, who disappears shortly after Mary's arrival, leaving her in charge of a small staff of nurses, a motley collection of patients--some severely ill--and limited medical provisions, as well as the drugged-out, obnoxious Western hippies who regularly drift into the hospital. Davis's diligence, along with plenty of rushed (and impressively detailed) operations, pays off, and she manages to keep the facility afloat. But she's powerless to stop the kidnapping of Phillip Davenport, the teenage son of a British diplomat, who becomes a patient of Mary's when he breaks his neck. Preparing to transfer Phillip to a different hospital, Mary sends him off in a jeep whose driver, well aware of the pampered boy's bankability, ends up holding him for ransom.