When a girl's health takes a turn for the worse, a young boy takes hostages in a hospital to force a surgeon to operate on his terminally ill sister. But the renowned doctor is on vacation, and the remaining surgeons refuse to perform such a complicated procedure without his help. With lives on the line, Matt and Emily must appeal to the doctor's past and the young boy's future in order to save the hostages and prevent the boy from doing something he will regret.
Matt Flaherty and Emily Lehman are top-ranked crisis negotiators in the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit who are trained to talk their way through volatile situations. They make an outstanding team professionally, but their relationship is a bit more precarious off the job. The series advances the fundamental idea that in life and in love "Everything is a negotiation".