No more than fifty years ago, it was legal for a hospital to refuse to admit a patient to the emergency room if her doctor was an osteopath. I investigate this chapter in American medical history by following the trail of my grandfather, the son of a Chinese immigrant, who became an American doctor, but paid the ultimate price when he could not bring his wife to the local hospital.

A darker side of the American dream unfolds as we look at a troubling chapter in American medicine.