A police officer named Donny is chasing a man who continuously evades him and his partner eventually leading to a rooftop. He attempts to leap from building to building in pursuit, but misses and falls to the ground.



In hospital, Donny reveals that his great-grandfather, his grandfather, and his father have died of a mysterious heart disease shortly after reaching the age of 40. This leads the team to investigate, despite House's claims that it's merely a coincidence. Chase and Foreman begin performing a battery of tests to look for genetic diseases and examine his ancestors' remains, but find nothing. House eventually fools the patient into believing he has an imaginary disease (Ortolli syndrome) and discharges him after giving him mints as a "treatment" for his illness. However, a few hours later Foreman tells House that Donny had collapsed while doing his laundry and was declared dead.



During the patient's autopsy he bleeds and suddenly awakens, obviously alive, which leads the team to readmit him and to try to find the reason for his illness and "miraculous" resurrection. House eventually solves the case, with the solution being that the patient had an intracranial berry aneurysm in the brain stem which applied pressure on various nerves, leading to the patient's symptoms, including the "stopping" of his heart.



Side stories include House hearing whispering in odd places, which turn out to be Wilson whispering to Amber at night. Chase, who cannot get over the death of Dibala, is unable to enter the ICU. At House's behest, Chase finally seeks a priest for help who tells him that the right thing to do would be to turn himself in. Ignoring the priest's advice, Chase tries to drink his troubles away instead. Cameron is seen phoning the police as Chase walks in late, and goes away on her own when Chase still won't tell her the reason for his odd behavior.