What did this handsome surgeon, old enough to be her father, want of her? Did he expect her to be more than a devoted assistant?

Attractive Patricia Lloyd, R.N., had two problems — both of them doctors.

Dr. Jeffrey Wayne was handsome, mature and mysteriously drawn to Patricia, beyond the call of duty.

Dr. Bill Gregory was young, very much in love and intensely jealous.

Caught between the two, Patricia found her personal emotions — and professional duty — in sudden and grave danger.

Sidewalks.

The sidewalks of city streets; the sidewalks of any city; your city, mine. But not of any streets. Not the sidewalks of the manicured boulevards, the wide tree-bordered avenues. Not the sidewalks which lie, relatively immaculate, before the doorsteps of the rich; not those lightly trodden upon by eighteen-dollar, bench-made shoes, desecrated by the crass, if functional behavior, of leashed and high-hat dogs; nor yet the sidewalks decorated by the spotless uniforms of Generalissimos in the Doorman’s Army. Not these.

Just sidewalks, over which the same sky arches, but a sky made vocal with the hoarse shriek of the hurtling L’s, just sidewalks built on a common soil beneath which, like as not, the clamorous mole, the subway, weaves and burrows its vocal path. Just sidewalks, littered with paper, with casual garbage, marked with the pressure of countless feet, hurrying feet, feet which go unshod, feet protected against heat and cold by the makeshift leathers of the poor. Sidewalks, endless highways, leading to birth, to death, to success and to failure; leading to the cold, crowded windings of city rivers, leading out to freer, wider areas, leading — back…

The thunder roared and crashed about them — but Nurse Lynn Lawrence felt that the wildness of the storm was rivaled by the frantic racing of her own thoughts.

She cast a glance at her fiance, Greg Avery. Beside him, huddled helplessly, was the pretty Dawn Evans. There was no doubt that Greg was paying a great deal of attention to comforting Dawn — too much, Lynn thought.

But there was another in the group of flood-marooned strangers. He was handsome, and smiled at Lynn in a way that sent her heart fluttering.

Surely things would right themselves once they got back to civilization. But in a disaster like this, a short time could lead to a broken-hearted eternity.

Lonny Morton enjoyed her work at the Craig Clinic. She liked giving any assistance she could to Mrs. Craig, a fine physical therapist. And she felt great pleasure as she watched Mrs. Craig help their patients regain the use of their injured bodies.

As someone who worked in a healing profession, Lonny knew she should not get too emotionally involved with any of the patients. But she could not help being attracted for Rich Lang, the mysterious young man who seemed reluctant to give up his crutch. If only she knew the full truth about him! Was he just pretending to be sick? Was Rich a liar? Could Lonny trust him when he said he loved her?

Staff Nurse Didi Jones was torn between enthusiasm for her interesting new job and the feeling that she ought to be “settling down” as her fiance wanted. But would there have been any problem, if she had really cared about him?