The inspiring memoirs of Katalin Karikó, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine 2023, whose decades-long mRNA research led to the COVID-19 vaccines. Katalin Karikó has had an unusual journey. As the daughter of a butcher in post-war communist Hungary, she grew up in a clay house without running water. She saw the wonders of nature all around her and soon became determined to become a scientist. This determination eventually brought her to the United States, where she arrived in 1985 with $1,200 sewn into her daughter's teddy bear and the dream of revolutionizing medicine. Karikó's three-decade exploration of mRNA led to an overwhelming success: vaccines that protected millions from the worst effects of COVID-19. "Breakthrough" is not just the story of an extraordinary woman. It is also an indictment of narrow-minded thinking and a testament to a woman's commitment in a male-dominated world shaped by prestige, power, and privilege.