When Syd applies for a grant for her clinic from a prestigious medical foundation, she meets a mysterious man who claims to be her father -- and as she gets to know him, his story about his relationship with her late mother begins to make more and more sense. Meanwhile, as Jim senses that Syd and Joanie are snooping around about the circumstances of Syd's birth, he treats a Lhasa apso dog that refuses to eat. Elsewhere, Robbie gets heat from the ex-husband just when it seems his romance seems to be blossoming with the attractive mother of one of his pee-wee hockey players and Joanie reluctantly hires a sensitive, temperamental baker.

Syd's lovelorn life gets a needed lift when she meets a hunky young single father but their relationship is jolted when she learns that he has a congenital heart condition that causes him to suffer blackouts -- and one day soon will end in sudden death. Elsewhere, an uncertain Joanie poses as the happy girlfriend of her gay assistant Elliot in order to secure a building expansion loan from a bank officer while Robbie's newfound romance with the unpredictable Tina proves to be a roller-coaster ride.

After Syd greets her old medical school pal on leave from a rural African hospital, he shows frightening symptoms of the super-deadly Ebola virus, forcing the health department to clamp a quarantine around her clinic -- as well as the Hansen household where Joanie is hosting a chaotic children's birthday party. In the meantime, while a desperate Robbie spots his family on the TV news and heads home hoping to help, Joanie discovers that his girlfriend -- who's also trapped inside the house -- was the same girl who tormented her at summer camp years before. Elsewhere, Jim busies himself treating a bulky bulldog suffering from serious anemia.

Hansen loyalties by the suprise vist of a family patriarch a rich, alling crumudgeon who has lucrative propositions-with strings attached.

A critically ill infant preoccupies Syd, who's entangled with a ubiqutious politician; a romantic getaway in the wild is anything but for Robbie and Tina.

Disclosures about politician Joe Connelly disillusion Syd, who's still battling a duplictious drug company; the Robbie-Tina romace runs a rocky road.

Political & romantic mattars busy Syd, who's in D.C. with Rep. Connelly for a showdow with a drug company; diverse cries ensnarl Robbie, Tina -and the hansens'dog.

Dirty politics intrude upon the relationship between Rep. Connelly & Syd, who gets an icy warring welcome from his wife. A bizarre stalking is capped by a cliff hanger.

When Jim returns home to recuperate from a serious head injury after being shot in last season's finale, Syd, Joanie and Robbie clash over each other's reactions to the changes in their father. Syd believes Jim needs more help than they can provide at home, Joanie thinks he needs to be surrounded by loved ones in his own environment while Robbie is detached and angry over the ""loss"" of the father he knew. Besides trying to keep the peace in her family, Syd must also deal with a neurotic patient who believes television characters are real people.