Small Great Things

Ruth Jefferson, an experienced black labor and delivery nurse, becomes the center of a legal storm after she hesitates to treat the newborn of a white supremacist couple and the infant dies. Her subsequent arrest and trial expose deep-seated tensions around race, privilege, and justice in a community that must confront its own prejudices. The novel blends a personal story of conscience with a broader examination of how institutional bias shapes the lives of both patients and caregivers.