Chapters One through Four Summary and Analysis

In the summer of 1985, a young man driving from New York to Johnson City, Tennessee, becomes ill and is taken to the Johnson City Medical Center - known to staff as the Miracle Center - where a nurse, Claire Bellamy, realizes that his condition is serious and calls for help. Ray, a pulmonary doctor, soon comes to believe the young man has AIDS and the staff is horrified at the possibility of exposure. The young man's parents come to the hospital as do two male friends from New York, and there's a tenuous peace between the man's family and friends. When he dies, there is concern over what to do with the ventilator but most put it down as having been a one-time situation because AIDS is a problem for the big cities, not for...