Alice Roberts investigates how Barts came perilously close to collapse in the 1500s. As Henry VIII turned the country upside with his marriage to Anne Boleyn and his break from the church in Rome, he confiscated the hospital's property leaving it penniless. In the modern hospital, cameras follow patient Maxine who is receiving a stem cell transplant from her son.

Patient Maxine, who comes into St Bartholomew's Hospital with a diseased heart valve, inspires Alice to investigate the world of body snatchers and how when the supply failed to meet demand, people took matters into their own hands to provide medical schools with cadavers. She also looks into the history of anaesthetic with historian Lesley Smith and hears about St Bartholomew's first washerwoman, Elizabeth Johnson.