Dr. Brian McKenzie, chief of psychiatry at an Oakland, California hospital, bends the rules in order to work with his patients and to avoid the more conventional tactics of chief administrator, Dr. Alan Bergman. McKenzie's staff includes chief resident Dr. Lewis Niles, Nurse Mary and Dr. Jesse Lane, with whom he is having a secret affair. He also has personal problems to cope with as a recent divorcee with an estranged teenage son, Scott.