Dr. Gail Thomas fears her career may end before it even begins. She has just done the unthinkable: quit her medical residency. The facility where she had been working was a cruel place. Incompetent staff constantly mistreated the children and teenagers in their care. Frustrated and on the verge of giving up on her dreams, Gail goes to work at a therapeutic boarding school run by an idealistic psychiatrist. Her new boss's unusual methods and troubled young patients put her skills to the test. Set at the end of a cold Chicago winter in 1994, 'A Bitter Pill to Swallow' is the story of a determined young woman claiming a place for herself in her profession and unraveling a medical mystery.