England, 1021. Rob Cole, a boy born in a miserable mining town, swears to become a physician and vanquish disease and death. His harsh path of many years, a quest for knowledge besieged by countless challenges and sacrifices, leads him to the remote Isfahan, in Persia, where he meets Ibn Sina, the greatest healer of his time.

1050 AD: Rob Cole returns to England to bring the medical light of the Orient to his countrymen. But he fails because of the intrigues of the established London doctors, who feel threatened by the new knowledge. And it is not only the human body that is full of seemingly impenetrable secrets, the soul also holds its own mysteries.