The stark inexplicable instant when seizures attack a baby is every mother’s worst nightmare. When no one explains why it happened and that instant turns into years, most mothers give up hope. Not Lacy Stonington. After twenty years of silence and guilt about her son’s severe brain damage, she uncovers the truth by accident. By sheer force of will she convinces the only lawyer she knows in her small town to take on the vaccine manufacturers and the government fund set up in 1978 to insulate the manufacturers. For Jean Driscoll, an overworked and disillusioned divorce attorney, the case is fraught with dangers; an unknown area of law, a special Federal court, an emotional, unsophisticated client, and problems at home that will only be complicated by more time away.

As Jean and Lacy struggle to locate old medical records, to force the doctors who treated Danny to reveal what they know, and to convince an expert lawyer to try the case, they find more common ground than either expected. Despite challenges to the stated time of the hospital admission, Lacy’s credibility, and the hidden bias of the Government’s medical expert, she convinces the Judge to rule in her favor. As Lacy becomes an advocate for other injured children, Jean sees motherhood as a valuable career too and strikes a better balance between family and career.