Lea gets off the elevator on her floor and sees an older woman walking out of Shaun's apartment. She asks who it is. He says she is a housekeeper that he was interviewing. He says he isn't hiring her because her clothes didn't match. 

Allegra Aoki is holding a press conference in the hospital. Allegra is explaining to the press that their international humanitarian program is coming to fruition. Melendez is going to work with the hospital's cardiologist, Dr. Avi Mehta, to perform surgery on a young boy named Gabriel from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has severe congenital heart anomalies. 

Melendez doesn't think that Gabriel is a good choice for the surgery and asks Allegra why she picked him. She said there were intangible qualities to him. Melendez thinks she picked him because he's photogenic and cute. 

A woman named Elizabeth is skyping with her daughter while she waits for the doctors. She is a famous podcaster who has a nodule in her throat that could cause her to lose her voice. Dr. Andrews and his wife are working on the woman together, with help from Dr. Claire Browne.  

Dr. Murphy and Dr. Kalu are helping Dr. Melendez with Gabriel's workup. Dr. Kalu gives him a Mr. Potato Head and some other toys. 

Melendez says the boy's heart cannot be fixed, but Dr. Mehta thinks they need to run more tests before they make a decision. 

Dr. Glassman is confused why Shaun sent away the woman because her clothes didn't match. Shaun lied to Lea. She isn't a housekeeper. She was a life coach who Glassman wanted to hire to help Shaun get his life together. 

Shaun talks to Claire about Lea. He thinks she doesn't like him because she called her an asshat. Claire says she was teasing and flirting with him. Claire teaches some flirting techniques to look for with Lea.  

Andrews and his wife are at home when they get a phone call saying the lab misplaced their patient's sample for testing. Without the sample, they cannot test to see if the nodule was cancerous. If it was cancer, they need to remove her voicebox, meaning she will lose complete power of speech. Claire goes to the lab to look for it. The woman in the lab is mad that the doctors are blaming her when it could have been a mistake by the doctors. 

After looking at tests, Gabriel's heart is worse than they thought. The doctors say that nothing could fix the problem, but some medications could help him live for a couple of years. Melendez says he will tell the mom the bad news. 

Melendez goes to Gabriel's room and sees his mom tapping a heartbeat rhythm on a drum. She believes that Gabriel's heartbeat follows the sound. Melendez begins to tell her that he can't fix Gabriel's heart, but she believes he can fix her son. He says they'll give him medicine to feel better and then they can go home. 

Claire continues to search the lab for her patient's specimen. Jessica and Dr. Andrews come in to get her out of the lab. Jessica tells her they can't say sorry. They can act sorry but can't say it and can't use the word mistake either because they can't make it easy for her to sue the hospital.

They tell Elizabeth about the missing sample. She is upset because if they can't find it, she will need to have her voice box removed just in case it was cancer.  

Shaun tells Glassman that he's implemented a proactive educational plan. He explains that he started flirting lessons yesterday to help learn about social cues. Glassman asks if he's lonely and tells Shaun there's websites where he can meet people. Shaun asks Glassman if he is lonely. Glassman says he is sometimes very lonely. 

Claire and the woman from the lab go to the courier to see if he knows where the specimen might be. They tell him that there will be an investigation if they can't find it. He says he stopped at the cafeteria to talk to a woman who works there and may have been distracted because he has a crush on her. 

Kalu packs up Gabriel's items and notices the boy's mother flushing the toilet repeatedly. She is fascinated by the water. The two talk and then the boy begins to crash. The mother beats on her drum to will his heartbeat back to normal while the doctors work on stabilizing him. 

The doctors stabilize Gabriel, and the cardiologist orders more tests. Shaun shows Gabriel where to put the pieces on the Mr. Potato Head. Then, he has an idea. He takes the toy from Gabriel to show Dr. Melendez. 

Claire and the lab technician go to the woman in the cafeteria to see if she saw anything that was supposed to go to the lab. She says there may be something in the trash, and they dig through it but find nothing. 

Shaun goes to Melendez with an idea on how to fix Gabriel's heart. Melendez doesn't think the idea will work but makes Shaun tell Allegra about the idea. They argue about it with her, and Shaun asks if they shouldn't do it because of fear of failure. Melendez says it's not worth it if the boy could have a few more birthdays. 

Elizabeth yells at Claire about the missing sample. Claire apologizes. Melendez congratulates her for what she did and says he won't tell Jessica. 

Gabriel's medication isn't working, and Melendez realizes that he hasn't been taking it. He talks to Gabriel's mother, and she pulls it all out of her pocket. She says she is trying to save his life by keeping him at the hospital so that he doesn't go back to the Congo.

Melendez says he doesn't know what it's like to live in her village but he does know what it's like to be poor. He watched his sister die because his parents couldn't afford her medications. Gabriel's mother says that in the Congo they want for everything, including hope, which Melendez had when he became a doctor. Her son's health is the only thing she can hope for. Melendez says he will do what he can. 

At his home, Dr. Andrews is blaming everyone else for the missing sample. His wife says it's not right for him to blame everyone else. She says he cares more now about hospital politics than helping people. She tells him that she feels left behind by his pursuit of the president job. 

Claire uses a white board to write out how the specimen could have traveled to the lab. Shaun comes in with a chart he made on a piece of paper. It has observations of flirting he saw in the hospital. Claire's name is on it. Shaun says he observed her flirting with Melendez at the nurse's station. 

Melendez comes in to get Murphy and says he wants him to elaborate on his idea. The two go to the OR. There, Shaun and Melendez are using virtual reality to look at a replica of Gabriel's heart and "operate" on it. They try multiple times until they finally figure out a way to make the fake heart work. However, there will be no margin of error on the real surgery. 

Dr. Andrews comes in to the lab to see if he can help Claire and the lab tech find the specimen. The two are grateful that he showed up. Jessica comes in and asks why Claire told Elizabeth she was sorry. Jessica says she hopes they don't see the price tag on that and that they are out of time for finding the specimen. 

Shaun says good luck to Melendez for the real surgery. Melendez asks Shaun if he believes in luck. Shaun says it's what people say to each other. Melendez says he doesn't believe in luck either so they practice on the virtual reality heart again. 

The doctors tell Elizabeth that they are out of time to find the specimen so her choices are surgery to remove her voice box that would leave her without speech or doing nothing and her possibly dying since they don't know if it is cancerous or not. She is heartbroken. 

Melendez and his team take Gabriel to surgery. Drs. Melendez, Murphy, and Kalu work carefully on Gabriel. The tissue is stiffer than anticipated, and Melendez doesn't think it will be enough for blood outflow. 

Elizabeth records herself reading books so she can read to her child. 

Melendez adjusts the surgery, even though it is not what they practiced on the model. 

Dr. Andrews starts the surgery to remove Elizabeth's voicebox, but Claire stops him and tells him to give her more time. 

During Gabriel's surgery, the valve doesn't have support and they can't close. Dr. Kalu looks in the body and notices a reattachment point that they can use to save him. 

Dr. Andrews waits in the OR on Claire. She goes to lab to see if the specimen container had the wrong name on it. 

Dr. Melendez calls for Dr. Mehta to prepare to take Gabriel off bypass. They remove bypass, but Gabriel doesn't respond right away. Kalu wants to use the paddles to jumpstart his heart, but then his heart begins beating. Everyone is excited and Melendez tells Murphy to close him up. Melendez goes to tells Gabriel's mother the good news. 

Elizabeth wakes up in her room with the doctors around her. They tell they found her specimen and they tested it. She doesn't have cancer and got to keep her voicebox. She hugs Claire and thanks her. 

Drs. Melendez and Kalu sit with Gabriel as he watches TV and giggles while his mother sleeps. Allegra watches the scene fondly. 

Shaun goes to see Glassman and says he had a very good day because of his operation and because he caught Claire flirting. He says he thinks Claire needs a life skills coach.

Glassman is impressed that Shaun is learning. He says that when he gets a life skills coach, he will learn even more. Shaun asks Glassman if he's giving up on him. Glassman says he's not giving up on him but that he can't always help him the way he needs to be helped. Shaun says he doesn't want a stranger helping him. 

Claire tells Melendez congratulations and then realizes she is flirting with him and stops. Jessica comes up to Melendez and grabs his hand while handing Claire their serving papers. Even though they found the specimen, Elizabeth is suing because she doesn't want it to happen to anyone else. 

As they walk off the elevator of their apartment building, Shaun tells Lea she looks absurd in the sweater she is wearing. She seems to recognize that this his attempt at flirting. She asks Shaun if he wants an apple and invites him into her apartment. Shaun follows her with a slight smile on his face.