Episode 1

Maria Troulis is an Oral Maxillofacial surgeon who reconstructs the faces of people who have had traumatic injuries. These include a soldier returning from war, an NFL football player, and in this episode, a police officer shot in the line of duty. ABC cameras are there when the officer and his family arrive at the Mass General ER.

Pina Patel is in her fourth and last year of an Emergency Medicine residency. A graduate of Ohio State, she struggles to gain confidence in a training program filled with colleagues toting Harvard degrees. After failing to perform a standard medical procedure and being criticized for her leadership abilities, Pina questions whether she is cut out to go the distance and become an attending.

Daniel "Dibar" Dibardino is in a very different place than Pina. He is cocky and self-assured, a surgeon approaching the top of his game after nearly a decade training in the ultra-demanding cardiothoracic program. Even after only two hours of sleep, he talks and walks like he is on rocket fuel as he tries to pull off a tricky double-lung transplant involving two recipients.

Episode 2

Renee Peerless has spent nearly nine months of her pregnancy alone while her husband serves with the military in Iraq. His absence is made more difficult by the knowledge that their baby in utero has a serious heart defect and will need surgery within days of being born. A story of courage and hope, viewers will recognize the universal themes of motherhood, duty and determination that summon the best from us in difficult situations.

Jon “JD” Daniel is chief cardiothoracic resident. His own father’s life-saving heart surgery set him on a course to become a doctor. His commitment to his chosen profession is total but the strains that long hours place on his young family are evident.

Amanda Grabowski was ER “nurse of the year.” Her innocent good looks conceal a tart-tongued, no-nonsense pro who deploys a lacerating wit when needed to keep colleagues and patients in line.

Episode 3

Will Curry is a second generation African-American surgeon. He has trained at top institutions and is an attending at one of the nation's best hospitals. He tells how none of this stopped a patient from mistaking him for a janitor. In this episode, Curry performs a nearly inconceivable brain surgery on a young father with a tumor that will kill him if it is not removed.

Andrew "Bardouche" ElBardissi and Rick Reish are both first year surgical interns and best friends. Both supremely confident rookies, "Bardouche" is hazed by the senior doctors training him, but shows great technical promise as a surgeon and cares deeply about patients. Despite his boyish looks, Rick tries to project an unruffled demeanor, but things don't always go so smoothly. Rick takes a compassionate approach to patients and hopes they respond politely, but several comical encounters ensue.

Amanda Grabowski returns in this episode in a traumatic case that leaves her unsettled. We also learn about her personal life and her yearning to find someone who can share it with her. Possibilities emerge as her story continues.

Episode 4

Sara Dumas is a teenager beloved by friends and family. High-spirited and curious about the world, she is hampered by a congenitally diseased heart that will kill her within weeks if a donor can’t be found. For any mother, this would be a nightmare. However, Sara’s mother also has to contend with the realization that the family will go through everything twice. Sara’s brother Ian has the exact same ailment as his sister.

Jeff Ustin has zero tolerance for mediocrity and steps on toes to get medical attention for his patients. A decisive surgeon, he only unfurls his impressive temper to make a point. When a patient is dosed with a medication that is too strong and not what he had prescribed, or a cardiologist is unavailable to view a scan, he explodes in technicolor.

In this episode, the steep learning curve continues for surgical interns and best friends Rick Reish and Andrew "Bardouche" ElBardissi. Rick reveals a deeply personal motive for becoming a doctor and Andrew shares his unorthodox views about when doctors should date each other.

Suffering some ER burnout, Amanda Grabowski takes a raucous Caribbean cruise with two other nurses and also finds her love life takes an unexpected turn.

Episode 5

Mike O’Donnell is from a working class Boston neighborhood, loves the Red Sox, and is a doting father and devoted husband. He was also, like Amanda Grabowski, a past “nurse of the year.” In this episode, he will win the lasting gratitude of a family shaken by their child’s cardiac arrest.

Kelly Wright is a study in contradictions. She is a gay Texan and a second year resident in Ob-Gyn. Working in women’s health, she says, people assume she is pro-life and liberal. In fact, she is a devout Christian who won’t perform abortions unlike most of her fellow residents. But a difficult maternity case and the break-up of an important relationship, have colored her first years of residency and leads to career doubts.

Rachel Clark is Kelly Wright’s best friend at work and is also a second year Ob-Gyn. Her mission is to be a world-beating gynecological cancer surgeon and her job leaves little time for her relationship with Jeff, a venture capitalist, who hopes to marry her.

Kimberly Parks is a cardiologist assigned to work with heart transplant patients. One of them is Marvin Pollet, a middle-aged detective from Louisiana with a rare heart disease that will kill him if a donor heart can’t be found. He may be too sick to be eligible to be listed for transplant and Kim, who becomes emotionally involved with Marvin and his family, has to lobby colleagues to get him on the list. It’s a powerful story about the bond that can form between a patient and a caregiver.