"A second's silence and then an almighty scream. It was the most moving thing I had ever seen ... A baby, a real live baby, another human life had entered the world. It didn't seem possible and yet I had witnessed it with my very own eyes."

Born into a happy working-class North London family in the mid-twentieth century, Katie is determined to "do something" with her life. Working in the impoverished East End in the 1950s, she meets the Sisters of St. John the Divine--a community of nuns dedicated to nursing and midwifery. The Sisters have been present at births, cared...