Caroline bags an invitation to meet her hero Charles Dickens.

William finds himself in an awkward position when he exaggerates how much of a fan he is, when he hasn't read a single page of Dickens. An excruciating evening ensues when William escorts Caroline to a dinner party at Dickens' house.

Meanwhile, John finds himself with a new protégé when he takes an orphan under his wing, and Robert meets his match when a forthright, uppity young volunteer called Florence Nightingale arrives at the hospital and starts interfering in his work. With Dr Hendrick keen to curry favour with Nightingale and her influential family, Robert has to work out how to get rid of her.

Caroline arranges for herself and William to meet a charismatic hypnotist at a local curry house for a demonstration of his powers.

William has a bladder stone and needs Robert to operate on him. William faces a choice between excruciating pain, or taking John's potentially lethal new drug, 'chloroform', during surgery. Robert, meanwhile, is suffering from the shakes and having vivid nightmares of his time in the navy.