Longtime ER nurse Jackie Peyton bends the rules to bring some good from a patient's senseless death, while concealing her addiction to a pain killer she gets from her boyfriend, the hospital pharmacist.
Jackie and her husband, Kevin, become concerned that their older daughter Grace is suffering from anxiety disorder; hospital administrator Mrs. Akalitus drinks Jackie's Percoset-laced coffee.
An elderly patient checks in who has been treating his heart disease with chicken soup; Jackie discusses her daughter's anxiety with Dr. O'Hara; Eddie learns that he is to be replaced by a pill-dispensing machine.
Jackie and Kevin consider enrolling Grace in private school; the stoic Dr. O'Hara must endure the emotional thanks of a boy whose twin brother she saved; Zoey loses a patient for the first time.
Jackie breaks several rules and regulations to help a 10-year-old girl caring for her lupus-stricken mother; Mrs. Akalitus accidentally tasers herself; O'Hara treats Zoey to a meal at a four-star restaurant.
Jackie is caught off-guard when a nurse (Judith Ivey) she used to work with, who is dying of lung cancer, asks Jackie to help end her life. Meanwhile, Coop’s mother (Blythe Danner) is admitted with a gall bladder attack. We learn that he is the only son of lesbians…a fact that delights Jackie and O’Hara.
A man is admitted with a steak knife sticking out of his chest. Eddie gives Jackie a Cartier bracelet for their one-year anniversary, but she rejects the gift. A baby is left in the nurses’ station and Akalitus takes the infant to her office.
Jackie discovers that a new temp nurse is abusing drugs, but when she confronts him, he calls her on hypocrisy; Mrs. Akalitus still has the foundling infant left at the hospital; Coop reveals to Eddie that Jackie has a child.
Jackie admits a patient she has treated before. As his condition worsens, Zoey questions whether Jackie did enough to help him on his previous visit. Jackie’s drug use starts to cause spontaneous nose bleeds.
Jackie and Grace begin mother-daughter tap class. Coop threatens to expose Jackie for falsifying a donor’s record. Jackie has forgotten to remove her wedding ring, and needs to get it off before meeting Eddie for a quickie.
Kevin invites Jackie to a midnight rendezvous in order to give her a new wedding ring; the comatose movie critic wakes up but his tastes have radically changed.
