Jeffrey runs afoul of the trustees when a grieving husband has second thoughts after allowing him to test an artificial heart on the body of the man's newly deceased wife; Alan comes to the rescue when a patient's HMO refuses to cover Aaron's operating on her very complicated and potentially fatal brain tumor; Jeffrey visits his wife Laurie, a straitjacketed patient in a mental hospital who apologizes for drowning their son Joey; Arthur's refusal to remove his wagging finger from Jeffrey's face during an argument leaves him with a bitten digit, and enables Jeffrey to diagnose the curable medical condition that's causing Arthur's resting tremor.

Billy arrives home just in time to save his dog Gordie from the fire that's engulfed his apartment, and ends up rooming with a reluctant Danny until he can find a new place to live; when a teething Alicia keeps her father up at nights, an exhausted Alan is thrilled when Diane offers to help out; when a racist teenager on the transplant list refuses the heart of a murdered black teenager, the hospital offers it to another candidate, but the boy's mother sues to have the heart transplanted into her son; Alan decides to get back into the social swing by asking Diane out on a date; Kate's inattention to pre-op labs results in the post-op death of the transplant patient; Danny overcomes his dislike of Gordie long enough to notice that he's critically ill, and by acting quickly, saves the dog's life.

Dr. Hancock's patient, who was using fertility drugs, gives birth to 8 babies.