Still helping out in the children's ward, Barbara becomes deeply involved with the fate of one of her young charges. And this forces her to reconsider her role at the hospital. For she has to face the fact that the child needs her help-badly.

Barbara and her father have completed their purchase of a new house and their plans for a children's home are under way. But the Council's support is not yet definite and the problems to be overcome prove to be more numerous and more distressing than Barbara could have guessed.