Former radio producer Alison Bell goes talent hunting for the Cottage Hospital's children's Christmas party. Alas, talent is hard to find but eventually, for the sake of a very sick child, she persuades Doctors Cameron, Finlay and Snoddie to do their party pieces. On the day itself each doctor is bent on outshining the others, only to find that someone else outshines them all.

Jeannie Cranston, an overweight teenager, is a worry to Dr. Cameron. Food is her obsession: though supposedly on a diet she eats ravenously. Could it be due to worry? And what is the hold that the local blacksmith has over the girl? And then she disappears...

An artist causes a flutter in the Arden House dovecote.

The arrest of Fergus Lammerton starts a chain of events that brings Dr. Finlay hastening back from London.

It's four legs and not two that cause considerable trouble for the partners at Arden House.