Alex, a young medical resident, is nearing the end of a grueling month working nights on the psych ward. Her patients are often belligerent and intransigent. (One—an angry, grieving mother—derides her care and the hospital’s protocols; another’s lost in psychosis, so detached from reality that he’s refusing potentially lifesaving medicine.) She’s torn by worries that she’s not practicing “real medicine”—and by her inability to placate the stern on-call doctor supervising her efforts from afar. (She’s also jealous of her day-shift friends and their dating habits, longing for the days she’ll be able to have a real social life rather than nursing secret crushes on the decent-looking doctors on staff.) More importantly, she’s struggling to even see the people behind the health problems, let alone help heal them.

And then things get worse.

Her sister’s admitted to her hospital unexpectedly, downstairs on another floor but possibly needing mental health care as well. Now Alex’s stuck balancing her desire to be a good doctor with the demands of being a decent human being. And as the night draws on and work and tiredness pile up, she may not be able to pull off either.

Shala Erlich’s Night Float is a stunning and detailed portrayal of the travails of a young psychiatrist. Written by an MD with an eye for the nitty gritty of mental health problems—perhaps society’s most stigmatized form of health issue—and an ear for their strange poetry, this is an unforgettable look at the dark places we prefer not to look at, and the light that still peeks through the cracks.