Chronicles the lives of Jacques Rebiáere and Thomas Midwinter, two men from different countries and backgrounds but united by a quest to understand the workings of the human mind and to investigate the treatment of insanity.
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In 1876, sixteen-year-old Jacques Rebiere is living a humble life in rural France. Raised by a stern father, Jacques is still burdened by the death of his mother in childbirth and feels an increasing sense of responsibility for his older brother, Olivier, a lost soul who is slipping further away from reality. Across the Channel, in England, the playful Thomas Midwinter, also sixteen, is enjoying a life of ease - and is resigned to follow his father's wishes and pursue a career in medicne.A fateful seaside meeting four years later sets the two young men on a profound course of kinship and discovery; they will become pioneers in the burgeoning field of psychiatry. Their plans give hope to Jacques, whose life's mission is to bring Olivier back from darkness. The fledgling doctors are accompanied on their journey by Thomas's beloved sister Sonia, who becomes the pivotal character in the young men's lives.When a female patient at the doctors' Austrian sanatorium becomes dangerously ill, Jacques is eager to learn the psychological reasons for her strange symptoms, while Thomas posits an altogether different diagnosis. Their separate quests to solve this medical puzzle, along with their distinct temperaments, threaten to divide them - and undermine all their professional achievements.
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