The Tenement Nurse

Show mercy when you can, and when you can't—don't hesitate.

New York City, 1922

Millie Carpenter is in the business of mercy. Two years as a field nurse during the Great War taught her much about suffering. When she returns to Manhattan, she joins the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, where she extends her mercy to the Italian immigrants in the impoverished tenements of the Lower East Side.

Millie's passion for helping people is powerful. But when Maria, a pregnant patient, is suddenly murdered at the hands of her abusive husband, Millie knows what she must do to stop him.

Maria's daughter, Angeline, has been stashed away in an orphanage by her mother's cunning brother, Marco. Millie feels responsible for Angeline and begs to know where she is. Marco agrees to tell her where his niece is as long as Millie performs a sinister favor for him. Before long, one favor turns into two, and Millie soon finds herself in an untenable position: kill someone she loves or lose Angeline forever.

Millie's once humdrum life transforms into late nights filled with poison, murder, speakeasies, and dangerous gangsters she begins to call friends. Now, more than ever, she must challenge her idea of right and wrong while trying to save those around her. With an expansive knowledge of pharmaceuticals, Millie explores the thin line between tonic and toxin