Jennifer Haigh's Mercy Street centers around a Boston clinic that provides abortion services. The lives of four people intersect as pro-choice and anti-abortion supporters face off during a particularly bleak Massachusetts winter in 2015.

Claudia is an administrator at Mercy Street, a women's clinic that offers not only abortion services but also support for other health care issues: providing birth control, running STD panels and performing annual health screenings. It's also the target of daily protests held at its front door. To ease the incredible stress she's under, Claudia smokes marijuana, which she purchases from Timmy, a tattooed, hirsute dealer who sells the drug out of his home (recreational marijuana use wasn't legal in the state until 2016). Anthony, an individual struggling with cognitive issues due to a workplace accident, also buys his drugs from Timmy. In his spare ...