Emily Owens, an awkward first-year intern at Denver Memorial Hospital, tries to balance work with romance. In the opener, Emily begins her internship and discovers her old high-school nemesis working there, as well as a guy she had a crush on in medical school.

When a female car accident victim is brought into the ER with a spike through her torso, everyone immediately blames her boyfriend for causing the accident. She makes it through surgery, but the doctors find that she may be paralysed. Later, they discover that the boyfriend has lupus, which could be to blame for the accident. The case brings up painful memories for Will. Emily deals with a model with jaw cancer who refuses to undergo surgery. Emily and Cassandra compete for Will's attention as they all prepare for the in-service exam.

When Emily, Will and Cassandra compete against each other to be Dr. Bandari's research assistant, feelings get hurt when they have to describe each other's flaws. Emily is determined to solve the medical mystery of a young patient whose x-rays reveals a bullet lodged in his lung, but who has no signs of a gunshot wound or scar. Meanwhile, Emily comes to a revelation about her personal life after diagnosing a daredevil with a rare disease that forces him to change his entire life.

When the hospital is inundated with bus crash victims during a winter storm, Emily is assigned to run triage in the E.R. During the chaos, Emily is forced to do an emergency skull procedure on a heroic Marine who suddenly collapses. Tyra bristles at her father’s lack of respect for her as a doctor, but they later experiences a breakthrough when they perform an emergency c-section together. Meanwhile, Will and Emily secretly work to help an unexpected patient leaving Cassandra to question Will’s true feelings for Emily. Micah finally makes a bold decision in his personal life.

Season Finale: Emily's decision about starting a relationship with Micah becomes even more complicated when Will hears about it and begins to feel jealous. Emily and Tyra treat an unruly woman, but after learning of her home hoarding situation, Emily wonders if the woman's personality changes may be caused by her many cats. Now that Cassandra and Will have broken up, Cassandra's strictly professional behavior distracts Will and causes him to misdiagnose their patient. Meanwhile, Micah's sister comes to town after finding out the truth about their mother.