In the 1950's, ninety-five percent of patients with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of lymph tissue which afflicts young adults, died. Today, most are cured, due mainly to the efforts of Dr. Henry Kaplan, one of the foremost physician-scientist in the history of cancer medicine. Called a "saint" by some, a "malignant son-of-a-bitch" by others, he changed the face of cancer therapy. Kaplan's passion to cure cancer dominated his life and helped him weather the controversy that followed in the wake of each of his innovations. But it extracted a high price, leaving personal causalities along the way.

Jacobs presents a dual drama--a biography of this multi-faceted man who called cancer his "Moby Dick" and the history of Hodgkin's disease: the serendipitous discoveries of radiation and chemotherapy, improving cure rates, and unanticipated toxicities. Lives of individual patients, bold enough to undergo experimental therapies, lend poignancy to Kaplan's successes and failures.