Aaron Buchbinder passes away painfully shortly after Nate arrives to visit (after he argues with Ruth about her visiting and photographing his daughter Maya). Kroehner's last act against the Fisher & Sons funeral home is to hire an inspector to examine the place, and they're fined for the problematic drainage system. Nate has a bleed requiring a cranial surgery to cure. Vanessa encourages Rico to ask for permission to be a partner since he has the money to pay the fine, and he's given 25% of it only when Nate reminds David he may need a replacement for Nate. Ruth quits her job at Nikolai's since she feels they can't easily share an environment. Claire goes to an interview at LAC but remembers her father's loss was the reason she began artwork, so cries for the first time since his death. Nate goes by to see Brenda one last time to attempt reconciliation and announce he'll be getting surgery, and finally tells Ruth about the surgery and its cause on their way back from seeing Maya. Ruth, still trying to keep control, insists Claire and David go to the gradation Claire doesn't care about rather than be with Nate. At the hospital, Nate receives anesthesia and dreams that he's running in the desert when a bus pulls up next to him. He boards it to find it's empty and doesn't start moving...yet.

The surgeons are dismayed when Nate's blood vessel ruptures and he suffers a hemorrhage, and his blood pressure continues to rise, then Nate dies...At least, the family and Rico are in shock, grieving, while Nate himself is dining in a hated restaurant with his father, impatiently waiting to get to his own funeral. He arrives early, sick of the food, and sees his funeral (open-casket, not a memorial service after cremation as he wished)...then hears David speaking to him from the next room where he sees himself paralyzed and with speech problems struggling to relearn. He continues through the home and witnesses himself completely healthy living with Lisa and Maya; at Christmas dinner with his family, including his father, who never died; living with a woman he has yet to meet and their son; spending his time lazily, watching TV and drinking beer with a woman. Returning to the funeral room, he meets his father again, who doesn't give him a straight answer on whether he's alive but suggests he just traveled through parallel worlds and must open a white coffin to get his answer....7 months later: Nate, Lisa, and Maya live with Lisa's self-absorbed actor boss Carol, where Lisa is a cook. David and Keith, now a reluctant security guard, are in therapy to find a healthy relationship, and David is advised to find an activity for himself so applies to the Gay Men's Chorus. Claire is attending LAC, enjoying it less than she anticipated, and starting a relationship with rock-band member Phil. Nate learns an interesting secret about his own life from Ruth and all the while sees scenes shown in his surgery that make him wonder if this life is meant to be.

Telemarketers Andrew Wayne Milne, Matthew Clark Hazen, and Martin Jacobs are shot by their insane former co-worker Daniel Grant Showalter who then commits suicide. Fisher & Diaz gets both the Milne and the Showalter funerals - but Rico objects to having the killer's, especially on the same day his victim's is to be held, so makes David's life miserable by refusing to pick up his body or do his job quietly. Stuck picking it up himself, David misses therapy with Keith, and Frank Mushler encourages him to view his own feelings about David without him around to defend himself. Lisa and Nate manage to invite David and Keith over for a barbecue dinner for a while before Carol barges in and literally demands Lisa's attention, but it gives Keith and David plenty of time to reflect on what problems their relationship has. Though she claims their own marriage is wonderful, Nate's dream of whether it was meant to be begin to crumble as several minor arguments arise with Lisa. Ruth's trip to Tapenga Canyon to give Sarah some Vicodin turns interesting when she learns her sister is addicted to it, and she befriends her spirited friend/caretaker Bettina.

Callie Renee Morimer flees a group of jeering young men calling to her as she walks alone in the dark, who turn out to be some joking friends, but stops in the street and is hit by a car upon realizing it. David enjoys singing in the choir but turns down an opportunity to go to a member's open house - he and Keith are spending the weekend at a hotel out of town, but from the moment they get there David worries about seeming too obviously gay in front of the straight couples. Carol finally crosses a line when blaming Lisa's family for not allowing her to give her constant perfect emotional support, so Lisa quits and she, Nate, and Maya are forced to temporarily move in with Ruth. For her own part, Ruth is happy to have them, and happy in general, with Bettina instructing her in the arts of receiving massages, shoplifting, and just enjoying life. Claire continues to accept Phiil's player attitude until it gets in the way of their personal schedule, so leaves him, and is intrigued by the unorthodox artist teaching her class in place of the one she took it to see.