The series is set in Dawkins County which is in a rural part of South Carolina and with it a flavor of good ole Southern charm. Dr. Rheane Rheaburn Lynch is an emergency room doctor for Dawkins County's small hospital which creates a challenge for Lynch as the facilities are not quite up to the standards of hospitals in the big city. Lynch's family line resides with the Charleston Rheaburns, an established old money family who disinherited and ostracized Lynch's mother because she had married a man beneath the family status. Lynch's father died when she was young and her mother turned to booze, so her early childhood was difficult until she met her childhood friend Marisa who had a significant positive effect on Lynch's life. Lynch's other significant relationship had been with John Micheaux, a fellow doctor who chose his upper crest family over his relationship with Lynch. Also, throughout the series, Lynch develops a fragile relationship with Mark Stafford, a local cop.