Katie Milbrandt is an aspiring New York actress working part-time as a medical receptionist when she meets troublesome patient Desmond Forrester, notorious in the office for ignoring Dr. Martin Crossley’s advice and addressing his cancer diagnosis with alternative medicine. Desmond flirts with Katie and teases her about the voice-over work she’s auditioning for with pharmaceutical companies, his theories about Western medicine managing to undermine her faith in both her career paths.

When Desmond continues to pursue a connection with Katie, she resists, until he offers to help her sort through a sea of medical bills she’s been getting over a recent minor procedure. That night, over drinks and dinner, and more drinks back at Desmond’s apartment, they never get to her medical bills because they’re so consumed in arguing about health care -- and getting to know more about each other: both raised by mothers alone and both unlucky in love.

When Desmond accidentally sabotages her big pharma audition, Katie wants to be angry, but just then another patient, Roberta, whom Katie has grown friendly with, takes a turn for the worse, and Desmond provides a port in that storm. But when he then disappears for a prolonged length of time, she discovers he’s been avoiding her because he believes his cancer has gone into remission, and he fears her skepticism about his unconventional healing methods will undermine his progress. She’s frightened too, but more than anything of her growing feelings for him.

Roberta’s death and Desmond’s goading get Katie to walk out on a particularly humiliating audition and begin to find the courage of her dream to be a serious actress. But when Desmond’s symptoms return full throttle and he still refuses to see a doctor, she feels she has to walk away from him.

Dr. Crossley’s telling her, however, that a snafu around Roberta’s diagnosis meant that she actually developed symptoms after she had been given the wrong test results (one of Desmond’s pet theories about the real causes of illness), coupled with his revelation that he has heard Desmond has taken a turn for the worse, has Katie quitting that job also and returning to care for a dying Desmond.

In his final days, the two of them are able to overcome past wounding and say “I love you” to each other -- something neither has been able to do before -- and in the end that love seems to transcend the essential mystery of what healing actually may or may not be. Later, alone at Desmond’s grave, Katie gives thanks for his help in getting her to assert herself, and hears a familiar voice telling her he won’t be far away, continuing to help her do just that.