The new interns - Underhill, Carr, Eggert and 2 others discuss Chicago Hope's situation. Underhill says it's no hemorrhaging red ink. Carr says doctors just keep coming and going. Kate Austin for instance, who is one of the top cardio surgeons in the country, has vanished.
Phillip Watters and Aaron Shutt are turning on the lights to the floor they just down to cut down expenses. Phillip reveals that the board voted in favour of Tommy buying the hospital and Aaron was among one of the members who voted for it, which has really gotten to Phillip.
Kate Austin returns from New Zealand with Sara and meets Tommy Wilmette at the airport. Sara is thrilled to see her father and while she searches for his gift, Tommy and Kate argue. Tommy says he's bringing up charges against Kate for kidnapping their daughter and afterwards, the police take Kate in to custody.
Aaron bails Kate out and Kate asks him where Sutton was, as she had called the Ritz and found out he checked out. Aaron tells her he moved to Seattle and married his ex-wife. While waiting for a train, Kate tells Aaron that she was beginning to think that in New Zealand, she could start a new life until Sara tells her she misses her father. Kate says she wants to see how her father is doing and takes a walk.
Phillip is on rounds with the interns and the next case is Dennis Hancock who was shot but now recovered and will be discharged shortly. He asks Underhill to check Dennis' lung and when he is unable to come up with a differential diagnosis, Carr intervenes with a diagnosis. Phillip leaves the case in Underhill's hands. Phillip tells her afterward to give a chance to someone who didn't graduate top of the class.
Danny Nyland enters the ER and talks to Grace Carr. He introduces himself as Chief of Trauma but Carr informs him that Dr. Wilkes is Chief of Trauma. A case runs in and it turns out to be Kate's father - Brook Austin. Danny & Kate are about to get into action when a new doctor comes in and tells her she has to wait outside. Kate informs him she's Chief of Surgery. He then tells her she can stay but can't perform as she's been suspended. Danny then asks him who he is and he introduces himself as Keith Wilkes, Chief of Trauma. He informs Danny that he's been suspended as well.
Billy is swatting flies in a tent in Africa as Diane is mending a sock. They argue more about Diane giving up on her work and Billy's impatience. Jack Luft comes in and calls them out to see a mating ritual and Diane tells Billy that whenever her old boyfriend shows up he starts acting like an idiot.
Phillip tells Danny that he took off with a patient's fiancé and Danny retaliates. Kate barges in and asks him what is going on. Philip tells her Tommy's in charge now and whatever he says carries weight. He says they will be given a chance to give their side of the story to the board.
Underhill tells Dennis that he's got fluid in his ribs and it needs to be taken away. Dennis asks him to do the procedure.
Billy is pacing around the tent when he sees Diane and jack hurriedly talk to a tribe member and enter a tent. We later see Diane holding a baby and Jake telling them about the problem. The baby was experiencing pain and was unable to feed. Billy tells him he can do the procedure with his finger but it will cause the child some pain. The parents agree.
Danny finds Aaron and Aaron tells him he screwed up, and everyone knows it. Danny tells him that wherever he turns, he'll be watching.
Kate and her father discuss his situation and he says he wants to go home. Kate tells him his faith is not going to heal him but he is adamant and Kate says that she's going to do everything to save him. She is not going to let what happened to her mother happen to him.
Aaron talks to Tommy and Aaron tells him he thinks someone's been having sex on his couch and unfortunately it's not him.
The procedure is not helping the baby and Diane and Billy decide upon something more. They tell Jake to tell the parents that a piece of the bowel, which Billy pushed back, is probably dead and it's dangerous to leave it there. Billy tells Diane he'll need retractors, a hemostat, scalpel and local anesthesia.
Kate and looks at her father's chart with Keith and expresses remorse as to not performing the procedure. Phillip comes in and apologizes for not preventing her suspension. Kate tell shim not many people have the courage to follow their convictions. Later on, she sees Tommy having a pleasant chat with her father.
The interns are working on a casualty while Keith watches in the back, not participating. Their efforts go to waste when the patient dies. Grace asks Keith why he didn't help and he says this hospital is not here to give them comfort and if she wants 'nice, warm fuzzies' she should get herself a dog or a boyfriend. He tells them they did the best they could.
The procedure is going on with the baby as Diane assists Billy and calms the child down by singing Silent Night.
Tommy tells Dennis that through his contacts with the police department he found out they have caught his shooter. Dennis tells him it was his brother-in-law. Underhill removes the fluid.
Keith tells Kate that a donor has arrived and advises her to put her father on the list.
Billy removes the dead tissue and Diane sings a song by Joni Mitchell. Billy tells her, it's chick taste. He says he likes it but it's very depressing. She tells him she took that album to show and tell in 5th grade. He comments that she was a serious kid but Diane says it wasn't so. She says that though they've been dating for 3 months he hardly knows her. Billy says if he hardly knows her, maybe it's not all his fault.
Grace Carr boasts about her first correct diagnosis while Eggert painfully watches. Underhill also comes in overjoyed with the fluid from Hancock's ribs. Grace tells them that it ends with them - this hospital ends with them. They're the people who can fix it.
Billy is bringing back two pails of water and Diane tells him that the baby's alert and is feeding. She tells him that she hasn't felt this good about medicine in along time and he says this has showed him why he got into medicine. But he says he still can't say. Diane sadly looks on as he goes once again to bring water with the baby's father.
Kate tells Phillip she wants a leave of absence to take care of her father.
Phillip gives Tommy and bunch of proposals for revitalizing the hospital, including a new head of Orthopedics and a new outpatient centre. He tells them he can read them or shred them but he has every intention of going about them. He then says he has given his entire life to this hospital and will not watch it go down. Tommy tells him that they try to help anyone at every cost and in the end, hurt everyone.
Tommy tells Aaron that he has brought down many hospitals in the city on money matters and wants to repent for it. He then tells Aaron he plans on closing down Chicago Hope and wanted Aaron to hear it from him first rather than anyone else.
Scenes shuffle from Kate on her porch to Danny sitting on a fountain, looking miserable. It ends with Billy loading his bags on to truck. Diane and Billy kiss goodbye and she looks on sadly as Billy goes off into the distance.