Set a white cap for Dr. Hugh.

Armed with their shining diplomas, Nurses Kay Regis and Ginny Attison were out to set the California town of Mayerling on its ear.

Kay was well aware that her best friend possessed more than enough charms and feminine wiles to capture the hearts of the two bachelor-doctors in town. And she was almost willing to let Ginny have the run of the mill — until her own emotions caught up with her and drew her irresistibly into the arms of the one man she was fighting to ignore.

After the death of her parents, Karen Saunders was brought up by her sister, Susan and her brother-in-law, John. Because John was overly strict, Karen became a rebellious teenager and often got into trouble. Now, several years later — after working as a nurse in another town — Karen returns to Coving to take a job at a local clinic.

Though her brother-in-law still hasn’t forgiven her for her earlier misdeeds, she proves to be a very mature young woman and extremely competent nurse. But Lennie, the young troublemaker she dated in high school, may pose fresh problems for Karen. And so may the two new men in her life, Steven Dural, the intriguing writer, and handsome, unavailable Dr. Bill Niven.

Webb House, a somber old mansion near Shadow Lake, was a house of secrets. To Nurse Jean Reese, the occupants were strange characters indeed — each with a secret life — a private, closely hidden world not to be shared.

In Jean’s life, too, there was a secret: a lost love. Michael was his name. Jean had worn her heart on her sleeve, but Michael would have none of it.

Until one day an exciting stranger appeared at Webb House…and Jean finally had to make a choice.

Janice Hunt, head nurse of the recovery-room unit at Wentworth Hospital, heard quick footsteps coming down the corridor and glanced up from her desk to see the stout figure of Amanda Dilby hurrying toward her. Janice could tell by the troubled look on the older nurse’s face that there was a crisis of some sort.

Resting a plump hand on the desk, Amanda said, “Mr. Forest has suddenly started to hemorrhage!”

Janice stood up at once. “That’s Dr. Dodge’s patient, isn’t it?”

The older woman nodded. “Yes. The doctor operated on him this morning. He checked on him earlier this afternoon, and the patient was fine then.”

“He’ll probably need a transfusion,” Janice said, her blue eyes wide with concern.

Amanda agreed. “Yes. He’s lost a lot of blood. I’ve called the intern, and he’s in there now trying to cope with it all.”

Relief showed on the attractive face of the young head nurse. “Dr. Cairns?” she asked.

“Yes,” Amanda said.

“That’s good. He’s the most experienced.”

“He happened to be on his rounds,” the older nurse said.

Janice said, “I’d better go see what’s happening.”

“I think you’d better.”

The two nurses strode quickly along the corridor to the recovery room, with its complicated equipment. Eleven patients were recovering from various types of surgery. Janice saw that young Dr. Cairns, assisted by one of the room’s several nurses, had already started a transfusion on the critically ill patient.

Janice crossed to the young intern’s side. “How is it going?”

Dr. Cairns, slender with a rakish brown mustache, gave her a reassuring smile. “Everything under control now. But it’s lucky I was here. He lost an incredible amount of blood in a short time.”

Nurse Iva gave too much, too rapidly, to her work and found herself confronted with a choice between her career and the man who loved her.

The staff of City Core Hospital was faced daily with the problem of saving the lives of would-be suicides and of keeping these patients from trying again and again. Nurse Iva Loring had an inner drive that had taken her through school and training at top speed. She gave too much, too rapidly, to her work and was on the verge of a nervous collapse when she took time off to regain her perspective on life.

Now she was easing herself back into work as a stand-by nurse. Her special empathy for the depressed and discouraged made her an ideal nurse for the suicide detail. But there was a question of whether or not she was too understanding and too involved to be effective.

Iva, herself, had to examine her values and choose between the career to which she was dedicated and marriage to the devoted young hospital pharmacist who had stood by her without making any demands on her emotions. Could Iva make that choice?