This "what-if" episode imagines what would happen in the event of a nuclear strike on Los Angeles. Dr. Styner and his colleagues are at a warehouse outside the city for a training session, but must try to make their way back to the devastated city after the nuclear attack. Along the way they try to treat and save as many injured and radiation-poisoned patients as they can with what little medicine they have and are forced by circumstances to decide which patients can be saved--and which ones they'll have to let die.

Obsessively self-reliant Dr. Robert Parker faces an uncertain future and an extended period of reliance on an iron lung (and on other people) after he contracts a case of polio.

Eight-year old Jonno's speech is garbled because of a cleft palate he was born with. Now kids mock him and he's retreating into a lonely world of his own. Grandfather's too elderly to do anything. What can teenage brother Pete do to help.

An abandoned baby grows up in a hospital ward when an extensive series of surgical procedures is necessary to repair the damage caused when the infant's mother forced her to ingest caustic household lye.

Two mothers leave their children, a little girl and a baby boy, alone downstairs. The girl discovers a lighter and starts a blaze that engulfs them both. At the hospital, one mother holds the other responsible for what happened.

A young husband must inform his pregnant wife that she's been diagnosed with fatal leukemia. Concern now shifts to the expected baby's survival. Dr. Styner wages an extended battle in the delivery room for the newborn's survival.

After collapsing on stairs, winsome young Annie is discovered to have a heart condition. Now doctors must operate to save her, but can they after her heart stops.

A young and healthy woman is diagnosed with breast cancer only a week before her wedding. Surgery must be performed as soon as possible. She becomes depressed and contemplates suicide.

An injured sailor is helicoptered onto a naval hospital ship for treatment. There the head doctor suddenly starts treating his staff angrily. It appears he has a personal stake in the sailor's survival.

On the way westward in the year 1867, a wagon train in a barren wilderness is suddenly hit by an outbreak of Cholera, and the one doctor among them is at odds to contain it.

Swedish immigrant Albert plays viola in a symphony orchestra. But his hearing is getting worse, so he's let go. Also, his social life is being held back. An operation can correct the problem, but will it stay fixed, and how to pay.

An aging actor has been a paraplegic for five years. Confined to bed, he turns to the bottle, maundering over his situation. That is, until a public health nurse arrives. Now he feels sensations in his legs. Is it just wishful thinking.

A young wife and mother is suddenly stricken with a brain aneurysm. Now the couple must decide between short-term treatment hoping for no recurrence, or risk delicate brain surgery to remedy the problem.

Shortly before completing his residency and beginning his own practice, a resident internist is stunned when a routine chest X-Ray reveals that he has contracted an active case of tuberculosis.

In 1884, pioneering surgeon Dr. William Stewart Halstead finds that he and three colleagues are slowly but surely becoming seriously addicted to the cocaine that they have been using in anesthetic self-experiments.

Following the death of his aunt/guardian, a 17-year-old epileptic is methodically treated with medication and extensive counseling in order that he may be able to live a comparatively normal life with a caring foster family.

Eleven-year old Danny is a hemophiliac, even a slight injury can cause death. He's cut his arm and the doctors must halt the bleeding. Now his older sister worries that she too may be subject to the genetic disease.

An alcoholic wife and mother of two faces the nearly overwhelming prospect of going through withdrawal and overcoming cirrhosis of the liver before she can begin the more difficult process of attempting to conquer her addiction to drink.

The blow to a child's head causes not only brain damage, but a dysfunctional family, as the members try to cope with the girl's problems.

A father has a car accident leaving his 10 year old son in a coma. As a team of specialists attempts to save the boy's life, his family tries to deal with the anger and guilt.

A young woman is wheeled in, victim of a holiday road accident. Doctors pour over her, determining extent of injuries. The tipsy driver responsible, her employer, callously wants to get on with his life. Entry serves as holiday warning.

A quiet, sedate, middle-aged bank cashier suddenly begins to exhibit strange and disturbing behavior. After a thorough examination, a medical team decides that his problem can best be treated by electroshock therapy.

After suffering a severe head injury, a newspaper editor struggles through a lengthy rehabilitative process .

One stormy night a soaking wet woman arrives at hospital and announces she is about to have a baby. In addition to the complications of a difficult birth she bears the secret that she is unwed and alone.

Dr. Canfield is a family physician with a troubled marriage trying to balance the needs and demands of his patients with those of his family .