What would you risk to achieve your dream? Would you risk your career? Your life? Your child's life? While researching Alzheimer's disease, Los Angeles neurosurgeon Julie Stein discovers the key to her long-frustrated dream of becoming a novelist: a combination of drugs that allows her to write as well as Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the drugs' side effects may kill her. The high school football team is about to cut Julie's son, Pete, who dreams of playing linebacker in the NFL. Knowing the costs, he secretly starts taking anabolic steroids. Julie soon faces an awful choice: abandon her dream or risk both their lives?