The Elements: A Novel

When she was 12 years old, Dr. Freya Petrus was buried alive at a construction site. She takes the elevator up to the burn unit of the hospital with a sad boy and his father, who clearly checks her out. When she arrives, her nurse and assistant, Louise, greets her. Her medical student, Aaron Umber, is also there, but she does not like him, and he is clearly intimidated by her.

She goes outside to smoke a cigarette, and sees the boy from before on a bench. She sits with him and he explains that his best friend, Harry, is in the hospital because his kidney transplant failed. He cries, making Freya uncomfortable. She asks his name and laughs when he tells her it is George Eliot, like the writer. She notices that he looks at her like his father did, reminding her of how all men are monsters.

Freya and Aaron interview the parents of a child with a burn on his hand so severe, he could not have done it to himself. Freya demands the father tell her what happened, accusing him of lying and wanting to make him pay for hurting his own child.