Born in Hong Kong, Adrienne Clarkson came to Canada as a refugee with her family during the Second World War. An accomplished journalist and broadcaster, she received numerous prestigious awards during her distinguished career. Clarkson was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1992, and in 1999 became the twenty-sixth Governor General of Canada. She is the author of the #1 national bestseller Heart Matters and the founder of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.

Honored as a hero in China, Ontario-born Norman Bethune was a surgeon, medical innovator and charismatic political activist who deployed his skills on the battlefields of Spain and China in the 1930s. His prodigious energy included inventing surgical instruments, mobile blood-transfusion units, teaching, and advocating for social justice at home and abroad. Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese-Canadian, has always been fascinated by the dynamic man who married his social conscience to his medical mission. Reviled as a Communist by some, revered as a humanitarian by others, Bethune was a complicated, inspirational figure who lived and loved on a large canvas.