Rebecca and Sean both have less than traditional ways to deal with Rebecca's miscarriage. Partly because Sean decides to go off his meds so that he can feel the true pain associated with it, Sean and Rebecca's methods of mourning end up being somewhat incompatible. Something that Rebecca and Sean do in combination about the miscarriage directly affects Cathy. In addition, it also makes Cathy realize that she has been so busy dealing with the life part of her illness that she totally forgot about the death part, namely making arrangements for what will happen to her body post-mortem. Meanwhile, Adam has joined an on-line support group called Kids of Cancer. After several on-line discussions with fellow kid of cancer "Poppy K", he suggests they meet to which Poppy wholeheartedly agrees. Poppy ends up being nothing like Adam imagined, which may not be a totally bad thing. And even though Paul asked for a part of the cut Mykail gets from lifting and selling items from the store, he begins to feel more uncomfortable about it when he sees the extent of Mykail's thefts.

Cathy believes the two best Christmas presents she received this year are Sean returning home after missing for three weeks while he went to find himself following Rebecca's departure, and watching Lee die peacefully in front of her, which has now made her not afraid of death. Taking a play from Lee, Cathy decides to finish what Lee didn't and couldn't: run the Minneapolis New Year's Eve Marathon, despite she not having trained for it at all. Her new mantra is to use her body while she still can. But the race entries have closed already which means that she has to find a creative way to enter the race. Adam receives an offer of reconciliation of sorts from Mia, which may interfere with something he feels is more important in his life at this time. And Cathy finds out about Paul and the electronics store parting company and the reason why. As this affects their health insurance, Paul goes on his own mission to ensure they get from the insurance company what they deserve.

With Paul (Oliver Platt) recovering from his near-fatal heart attack, and Andrea (Gabourey Sidibe) returning from her African adventure, Cathy (Laura Linney) creates an alter ego as she gets some good news about her chemotherapy trial.

Adam (Gabriel Basso) accuses his parents of being hypocrites after Paul (Oliver Platt) uses his blog to reveal that Cathy (Laura Linney) had an affair. And as Andrea (Gabourey Sidibe) tries to revive the school's Black Student Association, a new phone number provides Sean (John Benjamin Hickey) with a lucrative business opportunity.

Cathy upsets Paul when she tries to help him move on.