Mount Aesculapius

Phillip Coffin, the legendary Dean of the Benjamin Franklin Medical School, harbors a secret that plagues him in his dreams and feeds his insecurities. Nick Ware=s implacable animosity towards him seems fueled by jealousy over the close relationship Coffin enjoys with the Chair of Internal Medicine. Over the course of their struggle, Ware, emboldened by the discovery of Coffin's secret, conspires to schedule an unauthorized meeting of his fellow chairpersons for a no-confidence vote on the Dean. The multiple subplots tell how the personal and professional lives of these chairpersons dovetail to influence which of these two antagonists they will back. The surprising fallout from this climactic showdown between the Dean and his Chair of Surgery will profoundly alter the lives and careers of all participants in this drama. Mount Aesculapius is more than a suspenseful tale about an ongoing power struggle between two respected physicians, echoing one that took place between their predecessors more than two centuries ago. It is an epic story depicting the world of a modern academic medical center, with its diverse inhabitants, vested interests and moral concerns.