Based on renowned Japanese novelist Yamazaki Toyoko's representative work Shiroi Kyotō, the drama brings viewers deep into the political inner workings of the medical field by taking a satirical look at malpractice and power plays at a university hospital, and contrasting the paths and personalities of two doctors.

A striking drama of the amazingly gifted surgeon Zaizen Goro, caught up by his desire for power and fame, and his contemporary physician Satomi Shuji, who selflessly continues a quest to save human lives. The Great White Tower is the title of a representative novel by Toyoko Yamazaki that depicts the hidden side of the medical world and the dignity of human life, thus shocking and moving many readers, marking a milestone in medical dramas. A dense human drama develops starting with the first half, which depicts the tragicomic circumstances arising from human ambition in the selection of professors, and proceeding to the second half, which inquires into the dignity of human life through a medical court case involving a malpractice suit.