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.