The Great Moment

Eben Frost trudges through the snow to the aging widow Lizzie Morton's farmhouse. On the way he stops at a pawn shop and redeems a medal once awarded to Morton, inscribed praising him as a benefactor of mankind. Inside the farmhouse, Lizzie recounts Morton's life and their shared memories.

Morton mortgages his farm to pay for a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet President Franklin Pierce. The president signals support for a large monetary award but urges Morton to pursue his claim in court by filing a patent infringement suit against a doctor. Newspapers denounce Morton as greedy, the court rules his discovery unpatentable, and Morton lashes out in a shop that capitalizes on his discovery with no credit or royalties.

Back in the present, Lizzie relates Morton's death and their life together before, during, and after the discovery. She frames the events within the ongoing aftermath of his invention and the ethical battles surrounding it. Her reminiscences set the stage for understanding the man behind Letheon.

The second flashback follows Morton and Lizzie's courtship and early married years. Morton struggles as a dentist with patients who fear the pain of dental operations, seeking guidance from his former professor Charles T. Jackson. Jackson suggests cooling the gums and roots with topical chloric ether; Morton buys ether and begins his experiments, even fainting when it evaporates in his living room.

Horace Wells arrives and tells Morton about nitrous oxide as an inhalable anesthetic. Wells helps stage a demonstration at Harvard Medical School, but the patient cries out during the class. After a near-fatal overdose on the next patient, Wells abandons the approach.

Morton wonders whether the ether vapor could serve as an inhalable anesthetic. He tries the gas on a patient named Frost, who initially goes berserk but settles down after adjustments. Morton consults Jackson, who explains that only highly rectified ether will work; the next trial with Frost succeeds, and Morton starts to cash in on the idea by calling it Letheon.

Morton camouflages the smell of the ether and promotes Letheon, quickly raking in a fortune through painless dentistry. Jackson and Wells accuse Morton of stealing their ideas, sparking accusations of patent theft. The dispute highlights the shifting balance of credit in a rapidly changing medical landscape.

Warren agrees to a demonstration at Massachusetts General Hospital and Morton showcases the painless neck tumor excision before doctors and students on October 16, 1846. The demonstration is seen as a turning point for anesthesia, though skeptics remain. Warren then schedules a more serious operation, a leg amputation, to test Letheon further.

The Medical Society demands that Morton disclose the chemical composition of Letheon in line with medical ethics. Morton refuses to reveal the formula until his patent is secured, but offers to let hospitals and charitable institutions use Letheon for free, excluding rival dentists. The proposal tries to balance public benefit with his legal rights while antagonizing colleagues.

On the day of the scheduled leg amputation, Warren says the operation must go forward without anesthesia. Morton's heart moves when he encounters a girl about to have her leg amputated and prays over her; moved, he enters the operating theater and reveals Letheon to the surgeon and the world.

Morton publicly reveals the chemical composition of Letheon to Warren and to the world, marking a turning point in medical history and resolving the ethical stalemate that surrounded his invention. The revelation cements his place in history as the pioneer of anesthesia. The medical community absorbs the significance of this breakthrough as surgeries become progressively painless.