The pilot for the popular TV series is set during 24 frantic hours in the lives of a group of doctors, nurses, and staff members of a busy emergency room at a Chicago hospital. They deal with the seemingly endless casualties that stumble into their place of employment. The central characters are the chief resident and family man Dr. Mark Greene, who is considering a job in private practice due to pressure from his demanding law student wife Jennifer; outgoing Dr. Doug Ross, who deals with cases in his own personal way; straight-arrow Dr. Susan Lewis, trying to get by another long 36-hour shift; inexperienced third-year med student John Carter; cocky surgical resident Dr. Peter Benton; and troubled chief nurse Carol Hathaway.

Doug Ross and Nurse Hathaway treat a girls' basketball team from a local catholic school for meningitis. Their teachers also need to be tested but one of them confides in Hathaway that she may have a particular problem. Green and the Chief of Staff have a disagreement in the middle of a procedure. With the wedding only two weeks away, Tag and Carol Hathaway have to deal with all of the final preparations, not the least of which is writing their own marriage vows. Susan deals with a suicide victim who is using emotional blackmail to keep his girlfriend from leaving him. Susan reaches the breaking point with her sister Chloe and tells her she has to move out.