In the coffee-growing highlands of Ethiopia, an Italian scientist on a plant-collecting expedition discovers a local medicine man dispensing an apparent cure for AIDS. As the medicine man?s teenage daughter reveals the plants behind the cure, their lives become irrevocably intertwined.

Through These Veins weaves together the dramatically different worlds of traditional healing, U.S. government funded AIDS research, and the pharmaceutical industry in an intensely personal, fast-paced tale of scientific intrigue and love, with both devastating and hopeful effect.