Emily Owens, an awkward first-year intern at Denver Memorial Hospital, tries to balance work with romance. In the opener, Emily begins her internship and discovers her old high-school nemesis working there, as well as a guy she had a crush on in medical school.

Emily learns that the nurses don't like her when she is assigned a difficult case as revenge. Later, Emily reveals her feelings to Will, and considers using a secret she knows about the chief to get a speedy approval on a procedure.

Emily and Micah are frantic when they discover their patient needs a kidney transplant immediately, but they are baffled when she mysteriously refuses to accept the kidney from her new husband. Elsewhere, Emily assists Dr. Hamada (Brittany Ishibashi) and Dr. Bandari, with a risky surgery after they discover that one of the babies their patient is carrying for her sister suffers from a defective heart valve. Meanwhile, in an effort to keep Cassandra away from Will, Emily tries to land the job as Dr. Bandari’s research assistant. However, her competition is Cassandra, who is willing to play dirty in order to get what she wants.

Emily suffers a major embarrassment in front of her colleagues at the hands of a drug-impaired patient. In the aftermath, Emily decides to follow Dr. Bandari's advice and tries to toughen up. Emily and Will find that a teenage patient needs a partial liver transplant, but they uncover some surprising information when neither of the teen's parents is a match. Meanwhile, Cassandra starts treating Emily better in an effort to learn more about Will, and Tyra sets Emily up on a date with her ex, a fact which she doesn't reveal to Emily.