A journalist comes in with an infection on her foot and Dana(Janine Turner)realizes that she is actually a closet heroine addict. Lu (Rosa Blasi) is called to the emergency room when her patients, a deaf family, are brought in following a fire in their apartment building. She worries about their safety and suggests a risky ear surgery for them — but the husband disapproves. Lu brings her boyfriend home to meet Marc(Chris Marquette).

It's an all-nighter for Lu at Rittenhouse — and there's not a moment's rest. Robert's wife, Susan, is back in the hospital as her MS progresses. A baby is kidnapped — from a pregnant mother's womb. And Lana's blind date ends in the ER.

A mother goes on a hunger strike in the hopes of saving her son from being executed. And when something goes wrong in the OR, Dana wonders whether it's time for her to leave Rittenhouse.

Dana's bedside manner is put to the ultimate test when a former high-school rival comes to her for treatment. A nurse considers suing the hospital after she tests positive for the HIV virus following an incident in the ER.

Robert's wife's battle with MS becomes more difficult, so he asks Dana to try a new experimental drug on her. Lu treats a young Korean woman for anorexia.

Dana suspects an Amish woman is infected with mad-cow disease; and Lu treats Lana for a sexual dysfunction stemming from her days as a prostitute.

A pregnant and very ill pro-life politician has her principles put to the ultimate test when the only treatment that will save her life will result in losing her baby. Meanwhile, a patient of Lu's who is trying to pass herself off as a much younger woman is hampered by the inconvenient arrival of menopause.

Lu's return to her college alma mater is marred by an outbreak of meningitis. At the clinic, Dana develops symptoms suggesting she is pregnant.

The Rittenhouse doctors cope with a blood shortage in Philadelphia. Dana helps a patient who unknowingly contracted hepatitis from her husband, and Lu deals with a family of illegal dog fighters who have Lyme disease.

Lu is raped by Rittenhouse's star surgeon — but he insists that the sex was consensual. Meanwhile, Dana attempts to help a critically injured woman whose car crash may or may not have been an accident.

Lu copes with the trauma of being raped by devoting her thoughts to a patient who accidentally overdosed on over-the-counter cough medicine. Dana, meanwhile, grudgingly turns to Dr. Kilner for advice about a pregnant woman with colon cancer.