New York City firefighter, Tommy Gavin, cannot escape the ghosts of those who have died around him as he faces the everyday challenge of saving lives while trying to fix his own.

When a retired gay firefighter makes a published claim that several firemen who died in 9/11 were closeted gays, Chief Reilly is determined to set the record straight. While attempting to mask the pain of losing his wife and kids, Tommy does Jimmy a favor and spies on his widow which leads to a surprising discovery. The probie must deal with the unexpected repercussions of being a hero after making his first save in a fire.

Tommy decides to make life a living hell for his wife's new boyfriend by wreaking havoc on his business and finances. Meanwhile, Chief Reilly faces possible suspension as the result of an altercation with a fellow firefighter and Lou decides to share his poetry.

As Tommy struggles to remember the name of someone he's been sleeping with, and Jerry balks at accepting a suspension for attacking a gay ex-fireman, a woman who's looking for Franco approaches Sean. Explaining that Nez is a violent alcoholic and drug abuser, Franco asks Sean to send her packing. But after seeing through their ruse and then luring Sean into a date, Nez corners Franco at work to tell him he is the father of her five-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, as Tommy and Janet square off over Colleen's attending a concert with her boyfriend, Mike balks at the apparent sexual interest of Andrew, the man whose life he saved. Over dinner, Tommy listens to Sheila worry that her son, Damian, must be dealing drugs. Though he phones Damian with a threat to cut off his payments for harassing Janet's boyfriend, Tommy is intrigued when his nephew offers to have Roger's car repossessed. And after learning that the woman he thought Sheila was involved with was only her psychic, their date suddenly turns amorous and forces Tommy into an uncomfortable encounter with his late cousin's ghost. Meanwhile, after Mike claims that he isn't gay, he discovers that Andrew and his beautiful fiancée wants to thank him by having a menage a trois. And after a DNA test proving Franco's paternity has Nez threatening to sue, Jerry is suspended pending the outcome of his hearing. At the scene of a car accident, Tommy identifies one of the injured drivers as Colleen's boyfriend, and then realizes that his daughter has been seriously injured in the crash as well. Hurrying to the hospital, he angrily sends Roger packing before settling in with Janet for a long and uncomfortable wait. And when he runs into his cousin, Father Mickey Gavin, at the hospital chapel, Tommy inconsolably laments how much he would like to turn back the clock and start life anew.

As Tommy tries to insure that Colleen won't want to see her boyfriend anymore, and Jerry realizes just how serious the department is about his suspension, Franco lambastes Sean about his dating Nez. But, following a violent encounter with another woman that leaves Nez dead and her daughter, Keela, in the care of her drug-addicted roommate, Sean presses Franco to take responsibility for the girl. And while balking at first, seeing the squalid conditions she's living is all it takes to convince Franco to take her home. Meanwhile, a fight breaks out when Roger asks that Tommy stop coming between him and Janet. And, already unhappy that his union lawyer is homosexual, Jerry's case may have to rely on the testimony of his gay son, Peter. Following a showdown over breakfast that convinces him to place Keela in foster care, Franco and Sean come to blows. After claiming he talked to a dead girl trapped by an apartment building collapse, Tommy finds his dad and a pair of prostitutes at his Uncle Teddy's house. Nevertheless, while pressing him to go home, Tommy learns just how unhappy and sexually unsatisfied his dad has been during his forty-seven years of marriage. So, in the wake of the news about his dad, and following encounters with the ghosts of his cousin and the dead girl, Tommy decides to let Janet get on with her life, even if it means her and the kids moving away. At his departmental hearing, news that the bartender will testify has Jerry hoping that he won't have to rely on Peter. However, when the bartender claims that Jerry provoked the confrontation with his anti-gay remarks, Peter steps in to get his father off the hook by claiming that he's always accepted his homosexual lifestyle. Finally, as a relieved Jerry quickly reverts to his old ways by turning his back on his son, and Franco and Sean try to patch things up between them, Tommy is jumped, and badly beaten, by Roger's friends.

While plotting to get revenge for the beating he received from Roger's friends, Tommy tricks Sean into making a date with a beautiful woman who is really a transvestite. Much to Tommy's delight, Sean responds by betting that he can get her in bed by the end of the week. And as psychologist Dr. Thompkins presses Lou to read his poetry, Franco asks Tommy for help finding the foster home of his daughter, Keela. Meanwhile, with Johnny's help, Tommy has Roger arrested at Janet's house. And while Janet doubts that Roger could be responsible for the assault, Johnny convinces her that he's about to confess. Pressed to admit that he's interested in something more than just the easy sex, Tommy gives Lauren a less-than-heartfelt gift to honor the anniversary of the day they met. After Lauren asks to be invited over, Tommy comes home to find her waiting for him and reluctantly agrees to let her stay. But when Janet shows up to discuss reconciling their broken marriage, Tommy is in deep trouble after a showdown between the two women reveals that he doesn't even know Lauren's name. Meanwhile, as Franco kidnaps Keela from her abusive foster father, Lou is stunned to learn that none of the members of Dr. Thompkins's 9/11 survivors support group were even at the World Trade Center. Telling Jerry that he knows the truth about the "woman" he's been dating, Sean says that he's now going to turn the tables on Tommy by telling him that they are getting married. As Franco seeks help in avoiding an arrest for kidnapping Keela, once Johnny assures him that foster parents will never complain as long as they continue receiving their check from the state, he stashes the little girl at his mother's house for now. Finally, after his house is firebombed, Tommy learns that it was Lauren who started the blaze.