Things appear to be looking up for a cash-strapped, regional hospital when it hires a reputedly brilliant cardiac surgeon to head up its pediatric cardiac surgery unit. But when increasing numbers of children begin dying on the operating table, the unit's top O.R. nurse begins to suspect that the new surgeon is not as experienced as everyone has been lead to believe. She finds herself alone, faced with jeopardizing the career she loves by taking on the powers that be and blowing the whistle on the influential surgeon and the harrowing goings-on at the hospital.

Pillar has been drafted against her will on a one-way tour to colonize Mars. Queen of the Andes follows her last days on earth.