Larry, an Edinburgh schoolboy, defies his doctor father, during COVID-19 lockdown, to meet with friends in the Meadows, but abandons them on seeing Skye, a girl in the year below him with whom he has been in love ever since she sang a solo at a school concert two years previously. Engineered by Larry's doting sister, Angie, their young love seems to blossom until Skye is taken away to Stornoway by her single mother and forbidden to contact Larry. Devastated, Larry then goes down with COVID-19 and ends up on a ventilator where his life hangs in the balance whilst, disconnected from his body, he relives past lives over seven thousand years. These stories all relate to major advances in the history of medicine, from the trephining of skulls (drilling holes in the head) seven thousand years ago to the recent discovery of CRISPR technology to remove harmful genes which, when Larry recovers, and he meets up again with Skye, might provide a solution to the true reason for her mother's decision to separate the young lovers: a genetic condition which was the reason Skye's musician father abandoned her and her mother. The love story is interwoven with stories from the past that highlight breakthroughs that changed medicine forever, each complemented by a factual account and illustrated by the author's own, often heartfelt, experiences as a hospital doctor.
