After being seconded to a British hospital in France, the girls come face-to-face with the snobbery of the British nursing staff. Alice is forced to face the emotional brutality of war when she hears news about Harry.
Alice struggles to accept Harry's death; Hilda discovers an aptitude for anaesthetics; Olive gets a proposal and Elsie returns to the war as part of the Croix Rouge.
Alice, Hilda and Elsie are stationed only kilometres from the front with the possibility of death edging ever closer, and the war seeming like it will never end.