Brilliant and brusque renowned surgeon Martin Best leaves his lucrative career in Boston to become the general practitioner in the small seaside village of Port Wenn, Maine. One local teacher, Louisa Gavin questions his harsh demeanor, while Martin quickly gets annoyed by the antics of its town locals, all while hiding his debilitating aversion to blood.
After Martin comes face to face with his childhood bully and diagnoses a potentially contagious illness, he is forced to cancel Port Wenn's monthly baked bean supper, angering everyone in the town. Also, Louisa observes Mark getting friendly with her teaching assistant, while Elaine steps in to help Martin in an unexpected, but very much needed, way.
On the eve of Port Wenn High School's baseball team's playoff game, the town is furious with Martin when he accidentally breaks the arm of their star player, who happens to be the son of his high school bully. However, Martin suspects the boy has a more serious condition. Meanwhile, Elaine moves into Martin's waiting room after fighting with her mom, Aunt Sarah rivals with a fan of the opposing team, and Louisa makes a conscious effort to make some female friends.
Port Wenn's favorite hunky wilderness survival instructor goes missing after Martin deduces that he desperately needs medical help. Also, the locals are furious with Martin after he calls the health inspector on The Salty Breeze suspecting food poisoning and Elaine decides to skip her mother's wedding to the school principal.
While conducting a wellness check on the agoraphobic recluse who controls the town power grid, Martin's brusque bedside manner ultimately causes a massive town black out; as the townspeople fight for electricity, Martin befriends a young boy who reminds him of himself; Louisa and Mark share a romantic moment in the dark.
On the eve of Port Wenn's annual blueberry festival, Martin treats a local man who has apparently become blue from eating too many blueberries; Martin is disturbed by Aunt Sarah's lack of attention to her health.
When Port Wenn puts on their annual 'Blood Factory,' celebrating the gory horror novel set there, Martin must contain his secret debilitating blood phobia when Louisa gets seriously ill and needs his help. Meanwhile, the town is all atwitter when the novel's author is rumored to be making a surprise visit to the event.
Port Wenn eagerly goes into high alert when a corpse is found in the town's bog and Martin's autopsy reveals that he was murdered. Meanwhile, Martin's solo investigation trek leads him to startling discovery about himself and the new neighborhood watch turns into a gossip-seeking mission.