The newest resident physicians in the ER at Central University Hospital include the talented Dongyan, last-place student Gengming, rich-girl Tangxi, and Yicheng, who only cares about money. Under the leadership of medical legends Chengjun and Yuhua, they race the clock to save lives. At the same time, they treat patients from all walks of life and grapple with the choices they must make in their profession.

The ER is like a microcosm of society: there are alcoholics and young rape victims, misdiagnosed psychiatric patients with no mental illness, children with cancer, patients with occupational illnesses, patients receiving dialysis, drug addicts, cancer patients living in poverty, suicidal homosexuals in despair… Doctors not only fight the tug-of-war between life and death, but must also face the constraints of the medical system and the test of human nature, fame and fortune.

Chengjun decides to publish his paper on a new medication despite tremendous pressure; this induces a nasty power struggle at Central University Hospital. When Chengjun and Yuhua face a crisis of dismissal, Gengming leads the R1s against the powerful medical system, not only with their superior medical skills but with the conviction to save lives that first led them to become doctors.