What is it like to have power over life and death, and yet to struggle with your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? This film follows brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine.

Henry is one of London's foremost brain surgeons, but despite being a pioneer in his field he stills rides an old pushbike to work and worries himself sick about the damage he can inflict on his patients. "When push comes to shove we can afford to lose an arm or a leg, but I am operating on people's thoughts and feelings...and if something goes wrong I can destroy that person's character ……forever".

When Marsh brings his surgical skills to less-developed countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan, Sudan or, as documented in The English Surgeon, Ukraine, the conflict between promise and failure becomes wrenchingly sharp. It is in Ukraine, with its decaying medical infrastructure and myriad obstacles, where he and a crusading colleague — a Marsh protégé — have done tremendous good, though Marsh is still ruminating over his failure to save one child.