Meredith's 1st year as a surgical intern at Seattle Grace Hospital, is the toughest surgical residency program west of Harvard. She and fellow interns Cristina Yang, Izzie Stevens, George O'Malley and Alex Karev were just students yesterday. Today they're doctors and in a world where on the job training can be a matter of life and death, they're all juggling the ups and downs and balancing work with their own personal lives.

The five interns struggle to form friendships in this most stressful and competitive atmosphere. Meredith's medical ambition is overshadowed by a troubling secret: Her mother, a noted pioneering surgeon, is struggling with a tragic and devastating illness. Cristina is highly competitive and driven, but lacks tact when it comes to bedside manner. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens is the small-town girl who grew up dirt poor and, in spite of paying for her medical career by modeling. George O'Malley is the warm but insecure boy next door who always manages to do or say the wrong thing at the wrong time. In spite of his attraction to women, he's treated as "just one of the girls."