Dramatisation of Trollope's fifth novel set in the fictional county of Barsetshire.

A bomb dooms the first space satellite, manned by a selfless crew, a stowaway reporter (Lois Maxwell) and a mad scientist (Donald Wolfit).

Following a group of five very different student nurses during their first year of training at an NHS hospital in London called St. Augustine’s Hospital (filmed at Guy's Hospital), where they live in a dormitory. Susan (Belinda Lee) is reliable and sensible; Pat (Delphi Lawrence) is flighty and open; Maureen (Adrienne Corri) is Irish and loud; Ann (Henryetta Edwards) is a typical public school girl; and Liz (Barbara Archer) comes from a typical working class background. As they get to know each other, they bond in spite of their differences.

The police, with the help of a baker, try to find the owner a loaf of bread accidentally poisoned with potassium cyanide.