As an emergency room physician, Dr. Michele Harper is trained to fix broken bodies. But it is the unseen breaks—mental illness, trauma, addiction, discrimination, poverty, grief—that she found herself struggling to treat during her years practicing medicine in the South Bronx and at Philadelphia's Veterans Affairs hospital. In this compelling memoir, Harper interlaces poignant stories about the patients she serves with reflections on her own efforts to heal from her dysfunctional childhood, an unexpected divorce, and the unrelenting physical and emotional stress of her work. What she discovered was "the beauty in breaking," coming to understand how the broken places in life can present the best opportunities for healing.