Norman Bethune (Donald Sutherland), a Canadian surgeon, drives 1500 miles into China to reach Mao Zedong's Eighth Route Army in Mount Wutai, where he will build hospitals, provide care and train medical personnel. Flashback recounts his early life: a battle against tuberculosis at the Trudeau Sanatorium; Self administration of experimental emphysema; The invention of surgical instruments; His obsession with socialism; Russian Medical Journey; And a mobile plasma infusion unit was established in war-torn Spain. Norman Bethune and his wife Frances (played by Lady Helen Mirren) have been married twice and divorced twice. Frances chose to have an abortion instead of raising children in an unstable marriage. By 1939, Norman Bethune was dismissed from a Montreal hospital for taking unconventional risks and from volunteer positions in Spain for long-term alcoholism and playing with women. As his friend said, "There was only China left." Even there, Norman Bethune confidently ignored the advice of Chinese officials until the heavy casualties made him realize his mistake and apologized to him.