Disaster threatens Pledge's Purer Pickles when the workers start to stay away in droves. Nellie Pledge is disgusted. ""If the workers want to go in for this absenteeism"", she tells Eli, ""they ought to do it at home"". In the meantime, production must go on, so Lily and Walter are called in to keep the pickles flowing. But, though his intentions are honourable, Walter's methods seem destined to drop any reputable pickle works well and truly in the mire.