The Royal Palace, Stockholm, 1883.
Queen Sophia gathers her closest confidantes for a secret meeting. In a country where squalor and filth breed epidemics, and the risk of infection in hospitals runs high, something must be done, and the Queen wants to found a school of nursing in Florence Nightingale-style. Not everyone will be suited to the task: the future nurses must be educated, unmarried, and God-fearing — they must be driven by a true calling to care for their fellow human beings.
Charlotte, Gerda, Ragnhild, and Vera are the first four to move into the new nurses’ home. Tending to the sick and injured is demanding, dirty and difficult work. During their long days at the hospital, they encounter the suspicion and distrust of many male doctors — but also the gratitude of their patients. In alliance, the knowledge-hungry quartet grows stronger. They share joy and sorrow, hope and despair, and a lifelong friendship takes root.
These first four Sophia Sisters are followed by many more. As the years pass, the Queen realises that she needs a hospital of her own; one that can offer the very best of care. She founds Sophiahemmet — the hospital that, to this day, rests on the foundation she once laid.
Based on Sophiahemmet’s own archives, The Sisters of Queen Sophia's Hospital is the story of the women who, in an age of great medical discovery and progress, paved the way for a new profession and dared to claim their place in a man's world. It is the third standalone installment in Ruth Kvarnström-Jones’ international bestselling series Stockholm Landmarks.