The Thrift is not yet fully operational, but an emergency patient, Frank Harrison, is brought in with a serious burn on his arm. When he returns the next day asking for more morphine, Eleanor realises he has a more serious ailment. He is suffering from a strangulated hernia, but turns violent when she asks to examine him. Meanwhile Robert provides his daughter with her first private patient, a Miss Peggy Heart, but Eleanor is not amused to discover that she is in fact a music-hall singer whom her father is seeing socially.

When Harrison collapses in the street, Eleanor is at last able to convince him that he urgently needs an operation. She is eager to perform it herself, as she has not previously had any surgical experience (apart from amputating Daniel Bentley's toes), but requires the services of a qualified anaesthetist. Joe Marsham fits that description, and when Eleanor presents her case as an emergency, he agrees to assist, though he has anbitions to be a surgeon himself. L

When Dr. Finn O'Neill returns once again to London, he is famed for his pioneering work with immunization. As a human being, however, he has not improved at all. He sees no reason why he should avoid the Bramwells despite his shameful treatment of Eleanor, and even tries to resume their former relationship, even with his young wife ill in the same room.Robert, who has never liked Dr. O'Neill, suspects that Emmaline O'Neill's mysterious and increasingly serious illness may in fact be the result of some unspeakable experiment being carried out by the ambitious Dr. Finn to further his own career. A clandestine visit to the Irish doctor's laboratory reveals a damaging truth with which Robert could end O'Neill's career.As Alice and Robert's wedding draws near, Kate becomes convinced that her job is not safe, since Alice will be bringing her own domestic staff.