The first major snowstorm of the season hits Chicago, but just as the ER staff is celebrating the lack of patients during the holiday season, victims of a 32 car accident on an expressway are rushed in. Dr. Peter Benton (ERIQ LA SALLE) must surgically reattach the leg of a young victim, while Dr. Susan Lewis (SHERRY STRINGFIELD) performs a complicated heart surgery that she's never done before. John Carter (NOAH WYLE) preps an Asian woman who actually came to the hospital just to pick up her husband.

During the frantic activity, Bob (MALGOSCHA GEBEL - "Schlindler's List"), an immigrant janitor, helps out to everyone's surprise. She was a doctor in Poland and exhibits fine skills as a surgeon. However, she is fearful that her actions will prevent her from gaining certification as a medical doctor in this country. Meanwhile, Dr. Douglas Ross (GEORGE CLOONEY) misdiagnoses a Hispanic man (who dies) and clashes with a new attending ER physician, Angela Hicks (CCH POUNDER - "Robocop 3," "Postcards from the Edge"). After just returning from a romantic vacation in the Bahamas with Ross, pharmaceutical saleswoman Linda Farrell (ANDREA PARKER) assumes command of the ER reception desk when a temporary employee proves incapable. Ross is upset when Nurse Carol Hathaway (JULIANNA MARGULIES) announces her engagement to Dr. Taglieri (RICK ROSSOVICH).

Dr. Mark Greene (ANTHONY EDWARDS) is forced to instruct a man via telephone on how to deliver a baby when a pregnant woman insists on giving birth while watching the falling snow from the comfort of her own home rather than coming to the ER.