Claire Flannagan, a young lawyer, has landed a coveted job with a law firm that represents the largest nonprofit hospital system in the nation. She is assigned to an unscrupulous partner who aspires to be the next secretary of health and human services but faces the daunting prospect of overcoming an "anti-vax" aspirant for that cabinet position. Claire undertakes a series of meetings with the former CEO of the hospital system, a quirky, cigar-smoking Catholic nun, Sister Ursula. Although a founder of the hospital system, Sister Ursula is being pushed out by executives who place profits above the system's charitable mission. The two find themselves enmeshed in legal and ethical dilemmas and develop a close bond that enriches them both.

Irreverent, witty, and very timely, Taking Up Life in Both Hands captures the hypocrisy pervading the United States political system today.