It is 1919 and Elizabeth Hughes, the eleven-year-old daughter of America's most distinguished jurist and politician, Charles Evans Hughes, has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. It is essentially a death sentence for young Elizabeth. The only accepted form of treatment - starvation - whittles her down to forty-five pounds of skin and bones. Meanwhile, miles away, Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best manage to identify and purify insulin from animal pancreases - a miracle soon marred by scientific jealousy, intense business competition, and fistfights. In a race against time and a ravaging disease, Elizabeth becomes one of the first diabetics to receive insulin injections while the scientists and a little known pharmaceutical company - Eli Lilly - struggle to make it available to the rest of the world.