Mary Burke is the drug abusing daughter of a cardiac arrest patient Frank saves but leaves brain damaged after he has been dead for too long. Lost and aimless, Mary floats through life watching the people she knows falling to pieces. It is her compassion for the people Frank doesn't understand that draws him to her and compels him to try to be more humanistic, but which leads to his condition worsening and eventually giving him the idea that pulling the plug on her dad will end both their own suffering!