They are called clinical trials -- a bureaucratic name for the gamble that a new, unproved drug or treatment can save those suffering from life-threatening diseases. Now John Kelly shows the human reality behind the tests in three heart-wrenching essays about ordinary people who have placed themselves on the frontlines of medical research.

Kelly virtually lived with the three patients, their families, their doctors, and the researchers who led the clinical thais that would determine the course of their lives. There is Edward, a forty-eight-year-old international businessman, who withholds his HIV positive status from his friends and family. There is fourteen-year-old Romy, who may lose her leg to bone cancer but whose estranged parents come to support her. And there is thirty-four-year-old Julie, who, along with her surviving sisters, is determined to defy the legacy of breast cancer that has already claimed their mother and oldest sister.

With an unflinching eye, Kelly gives us an intimate, honest look at the world of clinical trials and has created three utterly unforgettable portraits of everyday heroes who, by offering their own lives, just might save ours.