Selzer turns those talents to the book's title essay, a retelling of the novella by little-known German writer, Paul Alverdes. In it, three men inhabit the Whistlers' Room where soldier-patients recuperate from wounds to the throat. Shading meaning between the injured men and the doctors, Selzer leads us to a compassionate understanding of the sick and the people who heal them.

The twenty-four pieces of this collection make a strong case for Selzer's inclusion among the company of such esteemed physician-turned-writers as Chekhov, William Carlos Williams, and Oliver Sachs.