John Carter returns to the Congo to retrieve Luka Kovac's body. He finds however that the area where was killed is still too dangerous to enter. He and Gillian finally manage to hitch a ride with a Red Cross worker, Debbie, who is going to the area. In flashbacks, we learn how Kovac and his fellow aid workers were taken prisoner by rebel troops. They are shot, one at a time, until only Luka is left. Amid the destruction of the eastern Congo, we learn his fate. Carter also makes a fateful decision.

Dr. Carter celebrates Christmas at a clinic in the Congo dealing with low supplies and anti-Americanism, but in the meantime, falling for an AIDS worker named Makemba.

An unexpected visitor puts Clemente in the middle of a domestic dispute. Meanwhile, Luka and Abby await test results on their unborn child; Neela struggles with her surgical elective and Pratt ends up with an unexpected suitor when he participates in a charity bachelor auction.

In the Sudan, Carter and a colleague struggle to save a woman who was raped by a band of militants. Back in the ER, Clemente asks to return to work after the shooting incident, but Kovac refuses. Meanwhile, Neela and Pratt have a work dispute, and, in a related incident, K.J.'s father shows up again in the ER.

Pratt departs for Africa with attitude to spare but makes his first contact with harsh reality before the plane lands. Abby senses something is not what is seems when she treats a 12-year-old and her grandmother, then differs with Luka over the best course of action. A prisoner is brought to the ER with what everyone thinks is a fake case of appendicitis. Morris is dressed, and ready, to impress, but Albright’s not. It’s time for Kerry to return to work and Clemente doesn’t know when it’s time to leave.

Pratt gets to work in Darfur alongside Carter and his co-workers, but is troubled by astounding number of people needing care and finds himself making a dangerous journey.