Amy must decide whether to terminate the parental rights of a couple convicted of child abuse; Maxine's disrespect rubs a building inspector the wrong way, endangering the scheduled opening for Sanctuary House and thus the federal funds needed for its operation; Amy grapples with her jealousy over Lauren's attachment to Katie; Donna decides to divorce Oscar; Bruce and his sister Winnie quarrel over where their mother should live.

Jonathan Ashworth joins the Sanctuary House team and manages to ruffle everyone's feathers; Amy tries unsuccessfully to displace some doubts about her relationship with Rob onto Maxine, but is finally forced to confront reality; Bruce quarrels with Winnie over their mother's move; Maxine is displeased at the methods Jonathan uses to engineer the arrest and conviction of the Roseland pedophile; Amy hears the case of a boy with gender identity disorder whose parents are charged with educational neglect for keeping him out of school after he's harassed by his classmates.

Amy presides over the custody hearing of a boy whose mother died in the collapse of the World Trade Center; an old friend offers Kyle a job with a pharmaceutical company, and Maxine counteroffers with the job of heading the Center; Amy relandscapes her new home and accidently throws out Ethel, the antique heirloom rosebush Maxine's grandmother brought over from Ireland in 1889; after initially spurning her offer, Bruce agrees to speak at Zola's press conference for convicted felons; and Maxine helps Sean over some rough spots as Eric's foster father.