The West Wing staffers are introduced as each learns via phone or pager that the President was in a cycling accident. Josh faces the possible loss of his job after an on-air insult of a political opponent, which Toby tries to prevent by having Josh make a personal apology. Sam's fling the previous night with Laurie, who unbeknownst to Sam is a call girl, puts him in hot water, which he compounds when ineptly lecturing a class of 4th-graders about the White House and then asking their teacher which child is Leo's daughter. Leo must deal with the fallout from Josh's blunder, as well as 137 Cuban refugees who escaped on rafts and are seeking asylum. The president walks in during Josh's apology, recites the First Commandment, and lambastes three Christian pols for not denouncing a fringe group.

Josh trumps a potential Democratic challenger in a masterful political move and then hires the challenger's chief of staff and ex-girlfriend Mandy Hampton. Toby tries to warn Sam away from his friendship with the call girl, but to Toby's horror, Sam seems intent on reforming her. CJ tries to spin the latest clash between President Bartlet and Vice President Hoynes. After an American plane is shot down carrying Bartlet's physician, Bartlet's response leaves Leo worried about the President's response.

While preparing for (and enduring) a state dinner for the newly-elected president of Indonesia, staff deal with a multitude of other problems: Josh and Mandy argue over the best way to handle an FBI standoff with militants in Idaho; Leo (and eventually Bartlet) intervenes in a negotiations between the Teamsters Union and national reps for the trucking industry; Toby tries to convince an Indonesian cabinet member to release a friend of his, an activist or incites anti-government protests, from prison; Sam witnesses Laurie at work as a call girl, serving as the state dinner date for a big fund raiser; and a pre-season hurricane initially threatens the Atlantic Coast, and then moves out to sea, where it puts an entire naval fleet in peril.

When a homeless veteran dies on the National Mall and his body remains uncollected for hours, Toby becomes fixated on getting him a proper burial.

The staff waits for a poll to tell them if their new, activist policies are moving them in the right direction. C.J. feels like her opinions are being discounted.