Siobhan had a privileged and sheltered childhood, the child of prosperous Scottish parents, growing up in small-town Eastern Canada. They always told her she could be whatever she wanted to be, and for the wealthy, that isn't even a lie. What she wanted to be - more than anything else, and for as long as she can remember - is a doctor. Specifically, an emergency room doctor - the ones who know what to do in a real crisis, the ones with the efficient team working around them, the ones who make the critical diagnoses... the ones who save lives. But it isn't a rich girl's idle fantasy; she wants to help people on their worst day, and she's put in the work. She did well in her pre-med degree, had offers from three prestigious med schools, and started at one. Then it all collapsed.

Her loving, funny, endlessly generous dad died suddenly of a heart attack just last year. When the lawyers and accountants started going over the books, they quickly found a business that was failing, debts mounting, and taxes owing. In the end, what was left for Siobhan and her mother was... absolutely nothing. Not the house they lived in. Not the cars they drove. Not a dollar in the bank.

That was a problem for Siobhan, who had been relying on her dad's largesse to pay for her education. Her citizenship and residence status blocked her from the usual student loans; it had never mattered before, of course. So she transferred the credits she had to North America's cheapest medical school... at Columtreal University. And now she lives here, paying her own way, working minimum wage jobs, taking classes as she can afford to. Still driven by that dream to be a doctor... but the goal seems a long way off.

Meanwhile, she can't afford to eat properly, and the place she lives would have been condemned a decade ago in any other city. She grifts hard, taking whatever work she can get, wherever she can find it, and she does have some unpaid intern shifts at the hospital - officially under the supervision of a licensed physician of course, although that's more theory than reality at HGH.

Of course, Hathian is full of dangers as well as temptations for pretty young women, especially if they're on their own. Even more especially if they're desperate for money. Shif is basically honest and decent, but she's no saint. She could be corrupted by this place.