东城大学附属医院，桐生恭一（吉川晃司 饰）、鸣海凉（池内博之 饰）、垣谷雄次（佐野史郎 饰）等七人组成的团队成功为26位心脏肥大的患者实施过极为困难和危险的巴提斯塔（左室减容）手术。然而，接连3次手术失败不仅令患者当场死亡，也使这个团队的信心备受打击。为避免扩大影响，院长（国村隼 饰）派遣倾诉门诊的女医师田口公子（竹内结子 饰）调查手术失败的原因。田口付出巨大努力，却毫无收获。不久，厚生劳动省调查员白鸟圭辅（阿部宽 饰）介入调查。在二人的通力配合下，患者死亡的秘密渐渐浮出水面…… 本片根据海堂尊的同名原作改编。

A stolen military aircraft with nuclear missiles on board crashes in the snowbound Northern Japanese Alps. Two teams of rangers from Japan's Defense Force must reach the craft before the enemies do.

The film begins in the present, with its heroine, Kaoru, a grown-up woman working as a real-estate agent, while helping out the folksy proprietor of a neighborhood fishing pond. There she meets a shy girl who needs her help baiting a hook and reminds her of herself in the fourth grade.