As Poplar enjoys celebrating a white Christmas, an unexpected SOS call from the Mother House interrupts festivities. Hope Clinic, a tiny mission hospital that has links to The Order ,is threatened with closure.
A small working group of midwives and a cleric have been requested to travel out to South Africa to work at the clinic and assess its future viability. Sister Julienne swiftly procures the help of Sister Winifred, Trixie, Barbara, Nurse Crane, Dr Turner, Shelagh, Fred and Tom Hereward, and they are soon transported to South Africa to try and save Hope Clinic.
The African clinic poses many problems and the team is both shaken and exhilarated by the challenges they are faced with: a water supply that's running dangerously low, no electricity and Dr Myra Fitzsimmonds, the clinic's doctor, who is suffering from a mystery illness.
But the biggest hurdle is a neighbouring white farmer who refuses access across his land, which could save the clinic's future. The team dig deep and face these challenges head on, and achieve real success - a completed polio immunisation programme, several trips to save lives in remote locations, and a caesarean performed by candlelight.
In their courageous attempt to save Hope Clinic and make a difference to the lives of the people that use it, some of their own lives are changed forever.
