Steeped in the gritty atmosphere of mid-'90s Harlem, 'Black Flies' chronicles the intense first year of Ollie Cross as a paramedic, wherein the sheer volume of trauma hardens him to the suffering around him. Amidst the chaos of shootouts, unscrupulous police, and despondent patients, Ollie must grapple with his increasingly callous outlook towards those he joined the profession to help. The novel reaches a pivotal moment when a botched diagnosis of a newborn propels Ollie and his partner into a profound moral battle of good versus evil, ultimately challenging the core of Ollie's humanity and the consequences of becoming numb to human pain.