Ruth Jefferson, a labor and delivery nurse, begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone on the ward. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case, but Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy.

Conflicted by Kennedy s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible especially for her teenaged son. And as the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy come to see that what they ve been taught their whole lives about others and themselves might be wrong.

#1 "New York Times" bestselling author Jodi Picoult is a born storyteller who writes with a fine touch, a sharp eye for detail, and a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships ("The Boston Globe"). "Small Great Things" is Picoult at her finest complete with unflinching insights, richly layered characters, and a page-turning plot with a gripping moral dilemma at its heart.