To save rent money, Carter lives in a medical student dormitory as a resident advisor. While visiting Corday at her apartment, Benton meets her father.

Benton performs dangerous surgery on a bomb-carrying man who was shot at a factory. Dr. Ross receives some good news that Dr. Weaver doesn't embrace, but she has no recourse. Rachel encourages Dr. Greene to help a horse that is in pain. Jeanie Boulet returns from her vacation.

Lucy finally admits to Carter that she doesn't know how to start an IV. Weaver interviews for the job as the ER Chief. Benton keeps his son's disease a secret. Jeanie intervenes when she finds out a liver transplant candidate is drinking again, and later asks Doug if she can be assigned to work for his pedes project in the ER. Corday gets stuck as the intern of dismissive and insulting Dr. Dale Edson.

The board decides to extend the search for a new ER Chief, leaving Kerry waiting for a decision. Benton visits a doctor who is deaf and he realizes that there is nothing "wrong" with his son. Mark saves the life of a gay prostitute and then tries to get the kid to avoid reckless behavior. Carter loses his Resident Advisor job because of Lucy, then blames her for not going along with his plan to defraud an insurance company, but she inadvertently leads him to shave off a nasty-looking beard he'd been growing. Corday saves two lives and impresses Benton enough that he decides to request she be his intern instead of Dale's. Carol tries to help an elderly Jewish guy find a place to live.

Carter and Weaver become unlikely roommates. Lucy is having problems with Carter, and Greene picks up on their squabbling. Corday works long shifts which leads to her exhaustion and a critical medical error, causing a rift with Dr. Anspaugh and problems for Benton. Greene has unpleasant flashbacks when he's hazed by the well-meaning paramedics. Jeanie worries when she and Doug treat a young boy whose childlike mother clearly depends on his 6-year sister to make all decisions. Kerry rediscovers her joy of practicing medicine and decides not to pursue the open ER Chief job, which goes instead to a Dr. Amanda Lee.

Lucy begins her surgical rotation under Benton and Corday. Romano offers to get Corday's fellowship reinstated and asks her to assist him in surgery. Weaver interrogates Corday, asking if Romano ever sexually harassed her. Corday denies it and concludes that Doyle must have filed charges. Ross jeopardizes a liquid pain medicine study by surreptitiously giving some of the drug to Joi's son, Ricky. Greene discovers the secret and informs Weaver. They decide not to tell Anspaugh because, by violating protocol on a federally-funded trial, the hospital would be unable to obtain research money and Medicare payments for years.

Doug faces possible criminal charges after Ricky Abbott dies when Ross shows Joi how to give Ricky a lethal dosage of medication. Doug is delegated to desk duty, Carol's clinic is shut down for acquiring the P.C.A. machine for Ricky, and Greene and Weaver face future disciplinary action for not reporting Doug's earlier mistakes. Meanwhile, Carter and Lucy discover a mutual attraction, Benton studies with a sign language instructor, and Romano begins his first day as acting ER chief.

When a school bus becomes involved in an accident, Mark assists paramedics with treating injured children; Weaver makes a discovery regarding a colleague.

Carter mentors a talented teen from a very rough neighborhood. Romano is upset about Benton's interest in the fellowship. Lucy continues impressive work in her Psych rotation, treating a law student with homicidal impulses and an angry youngster who is being severely over-medicated. Jeanie continues to grapple with her Hepatitis-C but gets a huge boost from a kindly minister. Hathaway reveals she is pregnant after a kid kicks her in the stomach, risking her baby. Greene and Corday attempt to go to a ball for trauma physicians but end up getting lost repeatedly while having a lot of fun hanging out together.