Following the cancellation of their impending nuptials, Louisa has left Portwenn, and Dr. Martin Ellingham takes stock of his life and career. He subsequently applies for a surgeon's position in London. Auntie Joan, accompanied by her neighbour's dog Buddy, drops a pie off for Martin and suggests her friend Barbara (Georgie Glen) can help him with his fear of blood. Much to Martin's annoyance, the dog follows him everywhere. Martin attends to a minor school emergency. Bert Large, who retains a 10% financial interest in the restaurant taken over by his son Al, visits Martin for a check-up. Bert asks Al to fix him up with a date. Bert's date is eager to have sex with him, but Bert wants a fuller relationship than just sexual encounters.*Mrs. Tishell's hearing-impaired husband Clive (Malcolm Storry), presumed long-dead by Martin, returns. Barbara has a bicycle accident as she tries to avoid hitting Clive, who was unable to hear her coming up behind him. After Mrs. Tishell pokes him in the ear, drawing blood, he visits Martin, who tells him a specialist can perform an operation to recover his hearing. Martin's ex-girlfriend Dr. Edith Montgomery (Lia Williams) attends to Barbara, and immediately has a disagreement with Martin over the patient's need for an operation. Without clearing it with Montgomery, Martin orders an abdominal scan and saves Barbara from having unnecessary surgery.*Pauline is driven to distraction and fits of insomnia by her snoring brother Adam (Luke Neal), who has moved in with her and sleeps on her couch. In desperation, she sticks a popsicle stick up his nose and causes him to have a deviated septum. Pauline and Al Large discuss her moving in with him. The episode ends with the return of Louisa and her surprise news: She is pregnant with Martin's child.

When a pregnant Louisa shows up unannounced at Martin's flat, she sees Dr. Edith Montgomery sitting at the kitchen table. He suddenly finds himself struggling to deal with his expectant fatherhood, but Louisa is adamant she does not want Martin involved with the raising of their child. She applies for a job back at Portwenn Primary School, where her replacement headmaster Mr Strain (David Haig) is creating suspicion and public concern over his increasingly erratic behaviour. Strain is renting out Louisa's house, and he becomes convinced that she has returned to reclaim her old position at the school. At the hospital, Louisa ends up under the care of Dr. Montgomery, who is inquisitive about Louisa's motive for her re-appearance in Portwenn .*At an awkward visit to Mrs. Tishell, who is snippy about the pregnancy, Louisa runs into Auntie Joan, who makes an offer for Louisa to move in with her. Joan offers to help raise the child, later rebuking Martin for his allowing Louisa to go through the pregnancy alone. Pauline casually mentions that she's seen Louisa, but Martin snaps at her and doesn't want to discuss the subject. He later has an argument with Louisa for not telling him about the pregnancy. Pauline's Uncle Jimmy (Roger Morlidge) and Aunt Jennie (Clara Salaman) visit Martin after Uncle Jimmy displays erratic public behaviour, due to his taking excessive doses of a testosterone drug, to overcome what he fears are homosexual tendencies. Uncle Jimmy says he could live with being diagnosed as bi-sexual, just not homosexual.*Strain has a visit with Martin, and when his urine sample is blue in colour, Martin realises the schoolmaster is unwell with porphyria, an enzyme deficiency that also afflicted George III.[24] Things take a frightening turn when the schoolmaster takes his school's children to Roscarrock Cove, which has numerous hazardous tide pools. Pauline immediately alerts PC Penhale, who arrives to save the day after Strain pushes Louisa onto the rocks and tries to drown himself and Martin.

Dr. Martin Ellingham is shocked to find Louisa and Auntie Joan knocking at his door before the Surgery has opened. Louisa has had a medical scare and wants Martin's reassurance that everything is fine. He refers her to a clinic where she is assigned to Martin's ex-girlfriend Dr. Edith Montgomery. In order to determine if the fetus is normal size, Louisa must provide the last date she had sex with Martin. Louisa later visits the elderly Mr Routledge (Ewan Hooper), to see if he will be vacating his unit soon, but Martin had previously denied his request to certify his physical needs as qualified to move to a nursing home. Routledge later collapses on the floor while both Louisa and Martin are visiting him.*PC Joe Penhale's artistic brother Sam (Martin Marquez) moves in with him. The clinic just having gotten a notice it is due for a mandatory interior paint job, Pauline hires Sam. When he collapses during the job, Sam is examined by Martin for symptoms of the hereditary Huntington's disease, causing Joe to worry that he also might also have inherited the disease. The medical test results come back negative for Huntington's. Sam is an art forger who collapses in Joe's home while mixing his own lead paint, causing Joe to believe his brother is manufacturing crack cocaine. Martin is called, and informs Joe that his brother is an art forger, not a drug dealer.*Pauline loves Al Large, but has become bored with him and is considering a break-up. Al and his father Bert go to great lengths to convince her to keep Al.

Louisa is now 7 months pregnant. Martin urges her to slow down after a dizzy spell, but is shocked to learn that Louisa has applied to be her school's headteacher again. Martin doesn't believe women are capable of balancing a job and raising children at the same time, and tries to discourage her, resulting in an ongoing feud between them.*Sally Tadwick (Sara Weymouth) the school secretary has just returned from a vacation in Spain and visits Martin to ask for medication to treat an infection from her new tattoo. Mr. and Mrs. McLynn (Benjamin Whitrow, Phyllida Law) visit Martin to get medical verification for a disabled parking badge for Mr. McLynn, claiming the disability is recent enough to qualify under regulations. Martin refuses and checks with Mrs. Tishell to learn Mr. McLynn has been disabled for seven years. The McLynn's agree to pay for the damage when they crash into Auntie Joan's car, if the police are not informed. Mrs. McLynn has been losing her sight for years due to macular degeneration, but she drives anyway, and later hits PC Penhale with her car.*Al Large does a plumbing job for Louisa to earn enough money to surprise Pauline with a new scooter, resulting in his neglecting to show up for their date because he's working. A group of young girls see Al wringing out his wet tee shirt from Louisa's window, and Pauline overhears them giggling and gossiping that Al and Louisa are having an affair.

Dr. Martin Ellingham is in London to meet Robert Dashwood (Nicholas Le Prevost), who is leading the selection process for the prestigious Imperial College London surgeon's job that Martin has applied for. Martin has misled Dashwood into believing he has finally conquered his debilitating blood phobia. Dr. Edith Montgomery later recommends him to the very youthful therapist Dr Milligan (Paul Ready) to help Martin overcome his blood fear. Martin attends one session and walks out calling it "psycho-analytical claptrap".*On Martin's train trip home, Auntie Joan's neighbour Jim Selkirk (Dave Hill) is a fellow passenger seated next to Martin. When he becomes ill, Martin is simply annoyed, until the man dies en route. His widow Mrs. Selkirk (Gwen Taylor) believes she sees and talks to her husband, who keeps telling her to visit Martin. In Martin's office, she believes her husband is sitting next to her. At a visit to pharmacist Mrs. Tishell, she talks to her deceased husband. Joan finds Mrs. Selkirk lying in her sheep pen, where Martin diagnoses her as suffering from lyme disease.*Meanwhile, Juliet and Richard Wenn (Sylvestra Le Touzel, Anthony Calf) sue Joan after she traps their highly troublesome child Theo (Andrew Byrne) in her chicken coop. Theo was rescued by Louisa as he screamed for help. Auntie Joan later overhears Burt and Al Large making fun of her as a dangerous woman affected by "the wind on the moors". Theo subsequently develops a mysterious malaise, becoming ill in the classroom. Martin pays a house visit to the Wenn home and sends a medical sample from Theo to the labs. PC Penhale is required to make an official investigation. Subsequent medical reports clear Joan of any blame for Theo's condition, saying the report results confirm that the child is afflicted with amoebiasis, from living in an environment with poor sanitation and hygiene.

Dr. Martin Ellingham meets Portwenn's new midwife, Molly O'Brien (Gemma Craven), who will be looking after Louisa. Martin is dismissive of her profession and irritated by her prejudiced attitude towards him and by her insistence that men aren't needed to help pregnant women. Thus the two of them do not hit it off. Molly shows Louisa a home birthing pool, and tries to persuade her to give birth via the home method rather than having the baby in a hospital. Martin arrives just in time to have an argument with the two women over the birthing method of choice. Auntie Joan responds positively when Martin tells her he's taking the surgeon position in London, and urges him to tell Louisa about it. Louisa overhears Edith tell Martin the London position is his for the taking.*In the meantime, Bert hires Marigold (Regina Freedman) to work in the restaurant kitchen. She responds by bringing him game to use in the restaurant, which Bert knowingly feeds to his customers. Her husband Michael (Andrew Greenough) becomes deathly ill, Marigold shows some milder, but similar symptoms, and when Bert calls in Martin to look at Michael, the Doc finds spoiled roadkill (the very same game Marigold has been supplying to Bert) in the kitchen cupboard. He determines that they both have toxoplasmosis from eating bad meat.

Dr. Martin Ellingham seeks out Louisa to talk about his new surgeon's job at Imperial College London, but they are interrupted by Bert Large, who wants to plan a baby shower for her. Joan opens up her house to the public as a B&B, and her first guest is her old friend Ted (David Ross), who has a disgusting breath and a constipation issue. Joan takes him to see Martin after he displays symptoms of a heart attack. No cardiac arrest has taken place, but Martin finds a large mass is found in Ted's abdomen, resulting from his chewing his own hair when he's in stress.*Martin and Pauline exchange angry words when she discovers a letter offering him a job at Imperial College London, with Martin incensed that she opened his mail in the first place.[22] He discharges her from his employ, with a letter of reference. Al Large tries in vain to intervene to get a better reference letter for Pauline from Martin. After Pauline refuses to replenish the toilet paper in the bathroom, Martin has her leave immediately. Later, Martin has to come to Pauline's aid after she's stung by a jellyfish. PC Penhale wants to transfer to Metropolitan Police in London to be near Martin.*In London, Edith has arranged with the hotel to share a room and bed with Martin, much to his surprise and discomfort with the sneaky situation. Her plans are stalled when Martin believes their room service employee is showing signs of a disease, and tries to alert him. In the hotel kitchen, Martin yells at him across the room, causing a chef to cut off his finger tip, but Martin otherwise saving the room service employee's life. Martin returns home immediately, thereby aborting Edith's plans.

Dr. Martin Ellingham and Pauline are surprised by the number of patients coming to see him on the last day before his Surgery closes and he moves to London. Martin compliments Pauline on her efficient method of dealing with the surge of last-minute patient appointments, and wishes her luck. Edith tries to convince him that he left the London hotel room because of a fear of intimacy, but he insists it was simply because he wasn't interested in an intimate relationship with her personally. PC Penhale wants a last drink with Martin, believing the two of them had a close professional relationship. As a going-away gift, Mrs. Tishell gives him a loud yellow sweater with his name in large letters across the front, which he buries in a bin. After a series of mishaps, including the taxi driver crashing his car with Louisa inside it, Louisa goes into labour and the Doc is facing a dilemma; should he move away or stick around to support Louisa and their newborn child?[22] Against Al's misgivings, Bert cooks with his own restaurant's recycled vegetable oil. Despite Martin having fired her, Pauline's services are retained by the new doctor.[30]