On their way to an auction to bid for a building neighbouring the Thrift, Robert and Eleanor are caught up in a horrific train crash on the underground near King William Street station. Robert suffers a broken arm, and so is only able to direct Eleanor in amputating the crushed leg of a fellow passenger, in order to extricate him from the wreckage. Upon bringing their patient, Peter Mills, to the Thrift, they are surprised when his two younger brothers arrive on the scene and take up protective positions. It turns out that the Mills brothers are notorious local gangsters, and soon the grateful Peter produces the deed to the building Eleanor had presumed was lost. But there is a price to pay, and when Peter's wound turns septic with gas gangrene, he will not allow anyone but Eleanor perform the further amputation. His brothers are more than a little obstructive, and it quickly becomes apparent that they will not long mourn their elder sibling, should he shuffle off his mortal coil.

The Thrift has now been in operation for over a year, and Eleanor thinks it may be time to move on. She applies for a part-time position at St. Jude's Hospital, where she runs into the expected opposition, spearheaded by the charismatic Dr. Finbar (""Finn"") O'Neill. Although she is clearly the best-qualified applicant, Dr. O'Neill's opposition appears to be insurmountable, until Robert intervenes by inviting the board chairman, Dr. James, to dinner. O'Neill is furious, and Eleanor discovers why: in the not-too-distant past, her father had engaged Dr. O'Neill in an acrimonious exchange of letters in one of the leading medical journals. Despite this disadvantage, Eleanor eventually manages to earn Dr. O'Neill's respect and, when his Registrar, Dr. Rolls, moves on to a better post, he offers the full-time position to Eleanor. She is flattered and nearly accepts, but when one of her Thrift patients, a 12-year-old prostitute named Lucy, arrives at St, Jude's in desperate need and is nearly t

Robert is celebrating his impending election as a Fellow the Royal College of Physicians, thanks to his old friend Sir William Fredericks. Sir William's son, Martin, plans to go to medical school and is being given the opportunity of observing Robert's practice and the Thrift. In the midst of the festivities, Robert's long-estranged sister Emily returns from India twenty years after eloping with a married man, an estate manager. Emily had taken with her not only all of her mother's jewels, but also 5000 pounds in cash--which would have been Robert's inheritance. Needless to say, Robert is less than thrilled to see her. Mr. Coxon, Emily's lover (whose wife had refused to divorce him), has died and, since she has no claim on the pension, she is now penniless. Eleanor tries to effect a reconciliation, believing that her aunt is now a reformed character, but Robert is resistant. Meanwhile, Marsham's two-year-old daughter Molly is admitted with a broken leg to the Thrift, where a child has

When Lord Palfrey, from whom Eleanor hopes a substantial donation, arrives for a guided tour of the Thrift, every patient in sight seems to be practicing projectile vomiting. Eleanor thinks it's food poisoning, but Robert diagnoses cholera. Eleanor is forced to notify Dr. O'Neill (who is the designated Medical Officer), who calls in the public-health inspector. The source of the infection is quickly determined to be an unsanitary condition in the immigrant colony at Jacob's Island, but the ill patients must still be treated.Dr. O'Neill, as it happens, is the leading authority on cholera, and has developed a pioneering though as yet unproven cure (called, somewhat unpromisingly, Compound 108). Eleanor authorises O'Neill to administer his treatment, though Robert is not convinced that it is safe.Two twin children are both doing well when one suddenly dies. Robert discovers she was given 12 grams of O'Neill's cure, which contains an arsenic compound, whereas the other was given only 4 gra

A Bramwell family friend (a former military colleague of Robert), Guy le Saux, returns to London from Canada with a new wife half his age, whom Guy had ""selected"" from a Canadian orphanage. Guy confides in Robert that certain aspects on the marital front have not as yet taken their natural course, but Robert and Eleanor soon suspect he is beating his wife. Meanwhile, Daniel Bentley's widow has a 10-year-old daughter, Lil, whom Eleanor wants to propose for Guy's programme for relocation to Canada. But when Mrs. Bentley catches her son Sidney thieving, she is all too ready to send him off instead. Unfortunately, the all-scientific Guy finds Sidney substandard, on the basis of skull measurements. Dr. Marsham finds Sidney substandard on quite different grounds, when Sidney nicks his razor (and, in the process, nicks himself, as well). Robert ejects his old friend from the house when he is convinced Guy has been beating his wife, but when Kathleen collapses and Robert must perform surgery o

It is February 1896, and a Valentine card arrives, addressed to ""Dr. Bramwell"". Robert assumes (wrongly) that it is meant for him, but cannot imagine who might have sent it. Meanwhile, old Nanny Pat arrives for a visit, and immediately takes a dislike to Kate who, after all, has only worked there for three years. Nanny is full of tales about the new job she is moving on to, but doesn't seem in a hurry to leave.Eleanor has secured a substantial donation for the Thrift, and decides to celebrate by taking Dr. Marsham to a fair in a nearby street. In the ""freak show"" there, they see a young woman, named Rose Tully, with an enormously deformed head, being displayed as ""the biggest brain on earth. When Rose is injured in a disturbance caused by dissatisfied customers, she is removed to the Thrift for treatment. Eleanor believes the deformity is a large cyst which could be removed by surgery, according to a recent paper by a Doctor Woolfenden, whom she consults in the matter. Rose is agreeabl

Charles Sheldon, a supplier of surgical equipment to the Thrift, arrives with an emergency casualty, a flamboyantly dressed young woman who he says ran out in front of his carriage. When Eleanor examines the patient, she is shocked to discover it is in fact a young man, Frederick Hackett. The other patients and staff of the Thrift are none too pleased to have a ""Marjory"" in their midst, but his injuries are too severe for Eleanor not to keep him in overnight.Back at the Bramwell home, Robert has been persuaded by widow Elizabeth Quail to entertain her ""spiritual leader"" Mr. Sullivan, a Sally Army zealot whom Mrs. Quail believes could be of advantage to the Thrift.The next day, Mr Beamish, a Thrift patient with an open wound, pops out of the infirmery for a pint and returns, roaring drunk and carrying a broken bottle, with which he slashes young Frederick Hackett before fleeing. Eleanor struggles to save Hackett, and gives her own blood for a transfusion. When Charles Sheldon pops in to

It is still late winter, 1896, and the Bramwells have gone to Eastbourne for a short break. Robert returns to London, but Eleanor stays on for a few days on her own. Or so she claims. In fact, she has (to every viewer's astonishment!) arranged to meet Finn O'Neill there, without telling her father. When others see them together, she introduces him as her cousin. Unfortunately, a Mr. Smythe is a patient of her father, and upon returning to London tells Robert about meeting Eleanor's ""charming Irish cousin"". Robert is not amused at his daughter's deception.Back at the Thrift, Robert has discovered the gas plumbing needs repair. Work is well underway when Eleanor returns, but the subsequent rift with her father requires that work be stopped, since Robert is suddenly unwilling to pay for it.Sidney is in a foul mood, and Nurse Carr wonders why, but Sidney won't talk to her about it. Eventually, it turns out that his mother wants him to leave home now he's 16. Nurse Carr reluctantly agrees t

It is the sweltering summer of 1896, and serious industrial accidents amongst the overworked, underpaid employees of the local brewery are on the rise, partly due to the fact that they are slaking their thirst while on the job. Eleanor is appalled to learn of their working conditions, but finds she must hold her tongue because the Thrift's chief benefactor, wealthy widow Alice Costigan, is not only the brewery's owner, but has also caught the eye of her father, Robert.Finn O'Neill suddenly returns from America, passing through London on his way to a six-week lecture tour on the Continent. Eleanor finds herself drawn to him just as much as before but, though he, too, claims to want to cement their relationship, there is a small political difficulty back in Chicago, where Finn's boss, Dr. Fraser, has ambitions to marry his 18-year-old daughter, Emmaline, to Dr. O'Neill.

Robert has been invited by wealthy Alice Costigan to her country house for a shooting party. He has high hopes of furthering his personal relationship with his hostess, but soon discovers that he has a rival for her affections, in the person of eminent Harley Street physician Aubrey Savier.During Robert's absence, Finn O'Neill returns to London for one day on his return route to America, and Eleanor invites him to stay the night. In the morning, they agree to marry upon his return next June.After returning to London, Alice stops by the Bramwells' house to return Robert's watch, which he had left behind. But her infant nephew Theo is clearly ill, and when Robert diagnoses an interseseption of the bowel he advises immediate surgery. Alice, however, is averse to the idea (her late husband had died ""under the knife"") and calls in Aubrey Savier, who suggests inflation of the bowel as an alternative. Next day, however, little Theo is worse than before and Robert, now with Eleanor's support,

Fed up with endless self-sacrifice and hoping to improve life for the family he has been neglecting, Joe Marsham has decided to accept the much better-paid position in Edinburgh he has been offered. But then he discovers a secret that his wife has been concealing from him (and which he would have noticed for himself if she hadn't been avoiding marital relations since the death of their infant son George, two years ago): she has developed breast cancer. Despite the utterly pessimistic assessment of Harley Street specialist Professor Osborne, he asks Eleanor and Robert to perform the necessary surgery on his wife--but is it already too late? She urges him to remain in London for the sake of their three daughters, if she should die.

It is June 1897 and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebration will be held in a few days, on the 22nd. The Thrift plans a party, but Eleanor is far more excited by the prospect of Finn O'Neill's return from America, so that they can at long last formalise their engagement. When he arrives, however, he brings with him something that Eleanor neither expects nor is pleased about. However, at the Thrift there is worse to contend with when a battered wife and her injured husband are both admitted and, as a result, a murder occurs.

Eleanor has fled to the country and so Robert finds himself temporarily in charge of the Thrift. At Alice Costigan's suggestion, and against the advice of Dr. Marsham, he hires a young trainee, Charlotte Adler. Her first assignment is to make a detailed inventory of the infirmary, from which Dr. Marsham discovers that bed-linen and, more seriously, opium, is going missing. Young Sidney Bentley is the obvious suspect and, despite his protestations of innocence, is summarily dismissed.Meanwhile, Ethel has her hands full at home with her aged and rapidly declining mother. When the kindly shopkeeper from across the street, Mr. Collard, offers to help, she refuses to let him in--probably because she has had to tie her mother up to keep her from wandering about. When Charlotte stops by with some flowers while nurse Carr is out, she discovers Till Carr tied up and drugged with opium, and the truth comes out.

Eleanor retreats to the country to recover from the emotional blow dealt her by Dr. O'Neill. She is hosted by old friends from medical-school days, the Kilshaws, whose outwardly blissful existence begins to appear to be concealing a disturbing secret. Their efforts to fix Eleanor up with a possible suitor, Mr. Jameson, is acutely embarrassing, but then comes a distraction with an outbreak of measles at the local school. The local schoolmaster, Mr. Herne, seems harsh and callous, but in the end proves a sound man.Sarah Mole, who is doubling as the Kilshaw's nursery maid and Mr. Herne's assistant, finds she can no longer conceal the fact that she is five months pregnant, but will not name the father. She is shunned by the entire village, but when she miscarries and Eleanor brings her to the Kilshaw home for care, she blurts out her secret to Eleanor. Seeing that Sarah cannot stay in the village, Eleanor decides to take her to London and find her a place training to be a nurse.

Robert has decided to open a Harley Street practice, to which end he borrows the necessary capital through his friend George Talbot, who arranges a very reasonable rate of interest from his banker father-in-law. Unfortunately, that is not the only interest involved, as Robert quickly finds himself having to fend off (without offending) his friend George's wife (and the banker's daughter), Laura. At the party celebrating Robert's new venture, he proposes to Alice Costigan, and she accepts him. Getting Laura Talbot to accept these circumstances is another matter.At the Thrift, Sidney Bentley seems smitten with a young burn patient named Florence. But despite Joe Marsham's encouragement, Sidney's bashfulness seems certain to prevent any relationship developing.

The apparently miraculous recovery of a hopeless goiter case causes Dr. Marsham to reconsider some of his fundamental convictions. He is reluctant to consider the possibility that a faith healer, Mr. Matthews, may have brought divine intervention, but his encounter with the man brings him to understand that healing is not something solely to do with the body. As it happens, Matthews is suffering from an advanced case of spinal tuberculosis. By all rights, he should be paralyzed and yet, by a supreme effort of will, is able to walk, though he is in terrible pain. Marsham, in despair over his recent bereavement, has sent his children away to stay with their Aunt Gwen, indefinitely, but Mr. Matthews gives him the courage to resume his life, and to forgive himself for his wife's death.Robert, meanwhile, is happily settling into his new Harley Street surgery, and has brought Kate in to help keep order.

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.

There is joy in the air as Robert Bramwell and Alice Costigan prepare to wed. Unfortunately for Eleanor, her father's impending move to Alice's sumptuous Kew residence also means that he will be withdrawing their support of the Thrift, threatening not only her livelihood, but also her developing relationship with Joe Marsham.