A serious coach crash throws the Royal into chaos, and for one member of the staff, the incident proves exceptionally traumatic. Cheriton has a bombshell for Nurse Taylor.

Ormerod rushes to help following a boating accident, but realises he's been sent to the wrong location, and when he finally arrives at the disaster scene, his efforts to save a man's life prove futile. On returning to the hospital, he angrily chastises Lizzie for the misinformation - only to realise he was too hasty in blaming her. Can he make amends? Meanwhile, PC Ventress comes to the Royal with two men who had been fighting over a girl, and one promptly collapses due to a brain haemorrhage. Weatherill faces a testing time when she helps deliver a baby which is tragically stillborn and nurse Meryl reveals she suspects she may be pregnant.

Ormerod faces a difficult dilemma when Caroline's father Henry turns up suggesting they turn off her life-support machine, having done all they can, but the guilt-ridden doctor wonders whether he'd only be letting her die so he can be with Weatherill. Meanwhile, Goodwin puts his career on the line when he allows a member of the public to cure a back injury, student nurse Samantha Beaumont is less than impressed by a date with theatre technician Alun Morris and a patient's pet parrot causes chaos in the hospital.

The residents are pleased when a fair comes to Elsinby, but Jeffrey and Samantha have their work cut out when the waltzer operator becomes trapped in the ride's mechanism. He's rushed to the hospital, where Mr. Rose operates, and reveals his father has been suffering dizzy spells recently. A concerned Jeffrey heads back to the fairground, but he's too late to prevent disaster. Meanwhile, Ken hatches a dubious money-making scheme and Jill is forced to confront a patient's wife.

Dr. Ormerod is furious to discover the police have launched an investigation into his wife's death, and reveals in a heated outburst that she was planning to leave him at the time of the accident. Bad news strikes a family when it emerges a couple's son has developed a hereditary heart disorder, a mother-to-be suffers kidney failure during childbirth and hospital porter Ken Hopkirk needs an operation after injuring himself while lifting a piano. Romance blossoms for Dr. Goodwin and student nurse Samantha Beaumont, and Lizzie Kennoway's driving lesson ends in disaster when she slams into the back of Mr. Harper's parked car.

Ormerod faces a testing time when his father-in-law arrives demanding to know whether he was seeing Dr. Weatherill while his late daughter was still alive. Following a heated exchange, it emerges that the disgruntled patriarch has hired a private detective to investigate the couple - but the situation only serves to bring them closer together, culminating in a marriage proposal. At the Royal, a painfully thin girl causes concern for Goodwin - whose green-eyed monster emerges when student nurse Samantha Beaumont agrees to a date with a younger man - and the hospital is evacuated after a suicide victim's corpse is brought in emitting toxic fumes.

Jill and Gordon's wedding day finally arrives, but a huge explosion at a nearby care home disrupts proceedings in spectacular fashion. As the Royal staff help pull the elderly residents out of the rubble, the horrifying truth behind the cause of the accident is discovered.

Mr. Harper prepares for the arrival of an important private patient, who proves useful when a badly injured teenager is brought in after an industrial accident after Dr. Goodwin puts his career on the line to fight for justice for the accident victim. Sister Brigid helps a terminally ill alcoholic called Rory, and Lizzie comes to terms with her husband's recent behaviour and looks ahead to the future.

Jill visits a war veteran and is taken hostage and Harper os spotted paying visits to a strange woman.

When a day at the beach ends in tragedy for a local family, Carnegie questions Weatherill's competence. An outraged Dr Ormerod leaps to Jill's defence, but divulges her condition in doing so.