Dr. Jack Gallagher arrives for his new job as Director of Psychiatric Services at Los Angeles Wharton Memorial Hospital, and gains the trust of a delusional patient using a unique method. Meanwhile, this maverick psychiatrist must also earn the confidence from his new colleagues and conservative boss, hospital administrator Nora Skoff, who is also his ex-lover.

Jack faces off with Gideon Graham, a famous professor and philosopher who slipped into a responsive catatonic state following a lightning strike that killed his wife. To help Gideon, Jack tries an unusual treatment that may pose a risk to his patient. Meanwhile, Jack finds himself attracted to the patient's daughter.

When movie star Liam McBride is checked into the psych ward, he insists he faked the psychotic episode in order to gain publicity for his upcoming movie. However, Jack believes Liam does in fact have a serious problem and refuses to release him. Meanwhile, Nora and Veronica have a girls' night out and share their romantic pasts with one another.

Jack attempts to talk down Leonard Steinberg, a gambling addict seriously in debt, threatens to jump off the roof of Wharton Memorial. Later, Jack heads to court in order to testify on behalf of a mentally incapable patient who is charged with manslaughter by a high-profile attorney who has never lost a case, Marcie Crane. Jack's expertise will be tested when the case turns out to be much more complicated than originally thought. Meanwhile, Jack and the team show up for a poker game after work, where sparks fly between Rylan and Veronica.

An accident on the job has caused a construction worker to have physiological and psychological problems for Jack to treat. The incident details don't match what was written in the report, but instead match up with a more serious accident which occurred 100 years earlier.

Jack and his schizophrenic sister are reunited, and makes her treatment his top priority. Meanwhile, Jack is asked for help by Veronica in treating an Iraq War veteran who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and amnesia.

A man trying to check himself into the psych ward claims to be a werewolf. Meanwhile, Nora has a difficult decision to make, and Jack sees a therapist about his recent problems.