Jill is shocked by the austerity of life in the drought stricken area, and is sensitive to every sign of distress and decline. From the bruise on Gail Klein's cheek to Kate's attempt to exclude her from Tom Huppatz's father's funeral, Jill senses there is much amiss in this place, and it goes far beyond the lack of rain.

Achmed Aziz, an Iraqi agronomist, arrives on a study tour and Kate fears he will submit a report on the condition of the local sheep. Having rebuffed Jill's attempts to empathise with her, Kate then forces her to co-operate with a plan to cover up the sheep problem until the drought breaks, after which it will be irrelevant.

Kate is injured in a cattle yard accident, forcing Jill to run the practice on her own. It seems the order of the world has been restored when Jill gets to do some refreshingly routine vet work and achieves results, mostly without Kate's help or interference. But her world is thrown off kilter again when she and Kate perform highly illegal life-saving surgery on Larry Riley.