The story is told in the first person by Leland Fowler, an 35-year old attorney in the Vermont State prosecutor's office. Just two years before, his wife died in a tragic car accident, leaving him to raise his young daughter, now aged 4. He's grieved for his wife for a long time, and his life lacks much pleasure. When he develops a sore throat and cold that just doesn't go away he visits the local homeopath, Carissa Lake. There is an immediate attraction. His cold gets cured and a romance develops. However, when one of Carissa's clients falls into a coma, there are legal and moral issues that come into play. The situation becomes more and more complex as Leland makes some ethnical choices that force him into a trap of his own making. The title, "The Law of Similars" refers to a basic tenet of homeopathy whereby the patient is treated with an extremely diluted dose of something that has caused his problem, forcing the body to cure itself. For example, a person with poison ivy might take a weakened solution of an herb that is similar to poison ivy.