Cookie's night at the pub drinking with travelling lingerie salesman Hilton Mercer ends in trip to the hospital, with the pair clad in some of Hilton's finer garments, when Hilton breaks his arm. Vicky becomes involved with hobby farmer Frances McNichol and her son Robert when called out to look at their animals. After being forced to put down Robert's dog, she is later called back to the McNichol farm to discover all their chickens have been killed. Shirley proceeds with her run for shire council, her opposition being one of Muldoon's cronies. The distributor of Molly's jams asks her to put preservatives in her products. The hospital board appoints a new matron, Margaret Sloan.