A gawky sixteen-year old girl thrashes about in obscene gestures, shrieking in a strange language. In another context, she would be called possessed; to her father, an important physician, she is epileptic; but to Alex Licata chief neurology resident, she is a fake. If Licata can prove her seizures hysterical, he will be a hero. If not, he may be out of a job...

This is not four-year old BJ Balsiger's first hospital admission, nor is it the first time the physicians have failed to trace the source of his convulsions. Alex Licata's medical student, Casey Lilstrom, has made a list of every possible condition the boy could have, but all have tested negative. Yet somewhere on her list is the solution to the mystery of BJ Balsiger, and Casey has accepted Alex's challenge to find it, no matter what it takes...

The Children's Ward chronicles a crucial week in the life of Alex Licata. With his patients' fate almost out of control, Alex must decide between the lucrative world of private practice and the underpaid self-satisfactions of academic medicine; between his wife and family and his attraction to Casey; between his obsession with medicine and his needs as a man.