Our nurses arrive in Egypt and soon realise that war is not quite the 'splendid adventure' they initially thought as they deal with convoy after convoy of dead and dying men from the botched Gallipoli campaign.

Overcoming intense hardship on the Greek island of Lemnos, Olive and Grace care for the injured troops from the botched August Offensive while Elsie fights to nurse her wounded husband Syd.

In Egypt, Alice and Elsie are confronted by the heart-wrenching reality of love during wartime, which reaches a breaking point for Elsie when she is forced to choose between her husband, Syd and her role abroad in the AANS. Whilst enduring the horrific conditions on Lemnos, Olive faces her greatest test of faith and resolve.

After being seconded to a British hospital in France, the girls come face-to-face with the snobbery of the British nursing staff, inciting them to reflect on their own national identity. Meanwhile, Alice is forced to face the emotional brutality of war as Harry is believed to have been killed at Fromelles.

Alice struggles to accept that Harry may have been killed; Hilda discovers an aptitude for anaesthetics; Olive is proposed to by Pat; and Elsie returns to the war as part of the Croix Rouge.

Alice, Hilda and Elsie are stationed only kilometres from the front with the possibility of death edging ever closer, and the war seeming like it will never end.