Carter's day shift and Pratt's night shift (his final shift at County) are intercut. Both men have extremely busy days. Doc Magoo's burns down. Luka calls Carter from the Congo and asks for help. Carter decides to go. Pratt decides to stay at County. In other parts of the hospital, Romano has his now-useless left arm amputated.

Carter travels to the Congo after Luka calls and asks for help. During the course of his two weeks there, he learns how much different the conditions are against what he's used to. Luka decides to stay for a while as Carter heads back to Chicago, ending up at a sleeping Abby's bedside.

John Carter returns to the Congo to retrieve Luka Kovac's body. He finds however that the area where was killed is still too dangerous to enter. He and Gillian finally manage to hitch a ride with a Red Cross worker, Debbie, who is going to the area. In flashbacks, we learn how Kovac and his fellow aid workers were taken prisoner by rebel troops. They are shot, one at a time, until only Luka is left. Amid the destruction of the eastern Congo, we learn his fate. Carter also makes a fateful decision.

Luka Kovac arrives safely at County General and is hospitalized for treatment. His friend Gillian delivers John Carter's letter to Abby.

Confident second-year resident Pratt wants to prove his abilities when he works the graveyard shift (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.), but his heroics sometimes backfire. Pratt shows contempt for a man, Ed Gamble, who presents no symptoms of disease but temporarily loses his speech.

Morris streets a patient without getting a psych consult, and the guy steals a tank and heads for County. Gillian is visiting Luka, and Sam's not happy about it. Luka and Sam make up by the end of the day though. A 13-year-old boy has chlamydia. Frank has a heart attack. Corday plays the dating game, going out with two men.