A Supreme Court Justice dies, forcing the administration's hand on picking a desirable replacement who can be confirmed by a hostile Congress.

The president and staff are about to head for Brussels to sign an international free trade deal that Josh has just spent a lot of time and effort negotiating, to nearly everyone's satisfaction; at the 11th hour, the CEO of an IBM-like company tells Josh that the first effect of the new agreement, of which his company is a huge beneficiary, will be the immediate transfer of 17,000 programming jobs to India; the head of the communications workers' union, which is representing the affected programmers, brings one of the programmers to Josh's office, and they refuse to leave, leading Josh to question the underlying adverse effects of the trade deal. Throughout the episode, Ryan tries to make Josh care that he's completing his internship that day, while Donna pesters Josh to bring her on the Brussels trip in an effort to make her a more active player in west wing activities, eventually leading to a trade-off that will mean even bigger things for Donna in the long run.

Five days before the New Hampshire Democratic primary, the Santos campaign risks extinction as Matt has not been invited to the last debate. Josh proposes a number of strategies to get Santos into the debate, including deal-making, legal challenges, attack ads, and publicity stunts - but the Congressman is reluctant to play along. With Josh scrambling to keep the campaign alive, Santos calls in help from Washington to tune his message. Hoynes and Russell launch attack ads on each other's records, and Josh realizes that a desperate long-shot is needed to keep Santos in the race.