At Grey House, visiting guest Brian regains consciousness and is disoriented. Cassie, Sam and Brian’s wife Eve wait nervously for an ambulance, which has not arrived due to the storm conditions.
Downtown, Martha has fallen asleep at her desk. She stayed at the office waiting for the storm to arrive. When she and Derek argue about clearing the roads, Derek notes there are not nearly enough snowplows for Middleton. He wants Martha to call the Blairsville mayor to try to use their equipment and crews. Martha is hesitant-- she wants to be the star of the storm to save her town. Derek and Martha argue about the emergency options, and Derek reveals a plan that works to the police officers.
Back at the library, Grace, Anthony and Nick are still waiting to be picked up. The snow is falling hard, and Grace tells Anthony she has this bad feeling about Brandon that she just can’t shake. After some time passes, Nick finally pulls off his headphones and expresses frustration to Grace and Anthony. He complains about having no internet connection and they tell him maybe he should read instead. He pouts and walks away.
At the Bistro café, the lights flicker off. Abigail keeps Stephanie company and brings her a hot drink. Stephanie is still lying on the floor to prevent further injury to her back. They wait for the fire department to arrive and help.
Outside, conditions worsen and Sam and Cassie concur that it is not safe to try to drive Brian to the hospital. Sam is worried that Brian has an injured spleen and internal abdominal bleeding. Cassie urges Sam to trust his instincts, that his years of experience have honed his intuition when it comes to medical issues. They try to figure out what is happening with Brian and ask Eve if there is anything she remembers. To make matters worse, phone service has completely gone down.
Meanwhile, Ryan and the developer Mr. Jones meet for dinner in Blairsville. Ryan talks about wanting to get back to Middleton and about his friendship with Cassie. The developer wants Cassie to break her lease to become a tenant at the mall. He tells Ryan that he has his best guy Frankie in from Chicago to go over numbers, and he wants Ryan to impress. To Ryan’s great surprise, Frankie turns out to be a woman, and she tells Ryan she will be his new partner on the project.
Grace rifles through her purse and finds some mints and a candy bar, which she shares with Anthony. Nick starts rattling the snack vending machine since he has no money, and shakes a candy bar loose. Nick sees some chocolate in the corner of Grace’s mouth and says he is disappointed that she didn’t share with him. As the evening wears on, Nick starts snacking away on chips, candy and soda from the vending machine. Anthony and Grace are getting really hungry, and Grace begs for him to share. Nick wants to know how much money they have. Anthony offers up his twenty but Nick turns him down.
Back at the café Stephanie and Abigail have a heart to heart. Abigail wants to know why Stephanie does not trust her. Stephanie wants to know why Abigail feels that she and Sam should not be a couple. Suddenly, an injured Brandon bursts in and interrupts their conversation.
Eve tells Cassie that Brian went running the previous afternoon. Sam figures he must have fallen with the slick roads and that he needs emergency surgery for a small tear in his spleen. Sam grabs some supplies and plans to operate on Brian right there at Grey House. Brian is quite pale, and Cassie is setting up a drip IV next to the couch. Eve is very upset and suddenly feels like she can’t breathe. She is worried that Brian may not live through this. Grace reassures her that Brian is in very good hands. Sam and Cassie are very worried about Brian, and need to gets Eve’s consent. The situation worsens when Eve refuses to let Sam do surgery at Grey House. Cassie and Eve sit by Brian, and Eve tells Cassie she won’t change her mind. Cassie replies that she trusts Sam with her life, and Brian’s life too.
The Blairsville snow crews have been slowed due to a major accident on the interstate freeway--they will need to take the back roads. Mayor Blankenship calls and talks to Martha.
Ryan and Frankie talk about the mall numbers and potential tenants. Frankie says she needs to vet and approve them. They argue about who has the final word, and Frankie tells him that their boss is actually her father. Ryan is taken aback.
Grace asks Nick why he seems so irritated. She suddenly realizes it has to do with Nick’s mom cancelling her visit to Middleton. Nick does not want to talk about it and walks away in a huff.
Martha’s husband Tom meets Martha down at the mayor’s office. Martha needs his support; she is worried that she is not doing a good job as a leader. He helps Martha to see she is in fact doing a great job.
Back at Grey House, Sam and Cassie continue to watch over Brian when Eve returns and finally gives her consent for Sam to do the surgery. Sam springs into action. Sam thanks Cassie for her support in this. Just as they are about to start, the ambulance arrives and they hurry Brian out to get to the hospital.
Later at the mayor’s office, Derek reports to Martha that the roads are clear and that Brian has made it to the hospital. Martha goes out to speak to the press, but to Martha’s chagrin Mayor Blankenship is already speaking to the crowd.
At the hospital, it turns out that Brian did not have an injured spleen but did have hemolytic anemia, which causes the spleen to bleed. Sam tells Eve he can leave the hospital the following day but that they should put off travel for a few days. Both Sam and Cassie are hugely relieved. As they talk, Stephanie is wheeled into the hospital for her back injury, and Sam checks out Brandon’s head wound.
At long last, Derek appears at the library to bring Nick, Grace and Anthony home.
The next day, Stephanie hands over the keys for the Bistro cafe to Abigail as she needs to take it easy by coming in late and leaving early.
Grace catches up with Brandon and she is so relieved that he is okay. Brandon promises he will be fine, and that he needs to live his life; Grace can’t protect him. Just then, Tara calls.
At the café, Sam and Cassie arrive for breakfast and talk about their experience the night before. Martha walks in and is flustered by being upstaged by Mayor Blankenship. Cassie shares that when Martha is ready to speak, she will find an audience ready to listen. Later that day, Martha holds her own press conference. She addresses the crowd with news about emergency measures taken and thanks Sam, Derek and Mayor Blankenship.
Sam and Cassie walk home, and Sam talks about how much he enjoys the thrill of surgery. Cassie wants to know why he did not move to a town with a hospital, and Nick confides that he wanted to move to a smaller town where he could build a closer relationship with his son. They walk into Grey House, and see Linda, Sam’s ex-wife, who has finally arrived in Middleton.