Nina hesitates when Daniel proposes, a man uses his illness to blackmail his daughter, and Caitlin murders a patient when she disagrees with his family's decision to fight his liver disease.
Daniel's former wife stirs up trouble when she arrives to celebrate their son's birthday. Parents of a dying infant worry that a doctor whose child has an identical health problem will receive preferential treatment in an organ donor program.
A teenage volunteer attempts suicide after confiding a terrible secret to Sam. Increasingly unable to cope with terminal cases, Margaret betrays a patient when he returns to the hospital after a recurrence of his cancer.
Metzger's confidence is shaken when he disastrously misdiagnoses a patient; Daniel tries to reconcile the estranged Fushidas; Sam befriends an elderly man.
A group of men dressed as elves are admitted with symptoms of plague; Dr. Fushida is adamant that he wants a natural son despite the diagnosis that a pregnancy would kill his wife.
Sam is paralyzed with caison disease after lying his way into a deep sea diving job with his uncle, which touches off a bitter fight between the brothers; racism cripples Metzger's romance with a Japanese-American.
Fushida becomes a difficult patient when he develops a dangerous infection; Daniel battles to have a patient admitted for critical surgery despite insurance problems; a diabetic friend of Sam's risks his health.
Daniel's son falls for a patient facing a fatal prognosis; a resident falters before his prominent mother's determination that he follow her into cardiac medicine.