In 1945 a small-town veterinarian provides for the county’s medical needs when the area’s last medical doctor is drafted. After a child dies in the veterinarian’s care, he must choose between exposing his tortured past while fighting criminal charges or living out his remaining years in prison.

NOTE: Veteran actor Michael O'Neill would like to play Dr. Needmore and has signed a loi. Veteran actor Alpha Trivette has signed an loi to play Brian Talmadge, the Dr.'s friend. "Dr. Needmore" has won 1st Place or Best Screenplay in three contests and placed seven contests/festivals.

SYNOPSIS:

As WWII rages in the Pacific Theater, DR. NEEDMORE, 70, is forced to see human patients in his veterinary practice after the county’s last medical doctor is drafted.

While delivering a calf at SHANNON YATES’ farm he meets her pregnant niece, OLIVIA OSWALD, 20. Dr. Needmore insists she stay with family in another county. He’s drawn the line at treating pregnant women.

As the world celebrates Japan’s surrender, Shannon calls him to her farm where he finds Olivia has returned and is in labor. Left with no choice, he delivers twins and one is stillborn. His duties done, he runs from the house as a flashback to another pregnant woman, blood, and a dead child flood over him.

LARKIN OSWALD returns from his service, a survivor of the U.S.S. Indianapolis disaster, to find they had lost a child. Rage takes over and he convinces the local prosecutor to charge Dr. Needmore with murder while practicing medicine without a license.

Not wanting his painful past to become fodder for the county’s rumor mill, Dr. Needmore decides not to fight the charges.

He hires his good friend BRIAN TALMADGE to represent him in court despite Brian’s reservations on Dr. Needmore’s lack of fight. Dr. Needmore returns to his practice but no longer sees two-legged patients.

Fortunately for him, Shannon doesn’t give up so fast. She unearths the details of his secret and presents it to the court. When just a young man, Dr. Needmore’s wife went into labor when they were on a remote hike and both wife and child were lost despite his best efforts. She also alerts the court to the fact that although he had not attended graduation, he had completed all the classwork to become a medical doctor. All charges are dropped.

Shannon visits his home, hoping to convince the doctor she did it for them. She confesses her love for him and he rebuffs her.

Dr. Needmore sells his practice to a returning military veterinarian. Months of soul searching ultimately brings him back to Shannon.