Philip Selwood has just passed his final exams for the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and has immediately secured a job as registrar at a teaching hospital under well respected Sir Arthur Benson-Gray, who happens to be his imminent father-in-law in Sir Arthur's daughter, Pamela Benson-Gray, having accepted his proposal of marriage. In the job offer for which Philip had to "compete", Sir Arthur asks Philip to postpone announcement of the engagement in not wanting to appear that the offer is a case of nepotism, which it is in part in some employment candidates rightly believing it's not what you know, but who you know. One of the employment candidates with that belief is native Pole Carl Romek, who, in having an Eastern European accent on top of everything else, has been passed over for job after job, he applying for the other open position at the hospital of anesthetist. Romek is surprised to get the job, although he is unaware that he only got it in a power play between Sir Arthur and his chief rival surgeon, Neil Isherwood. Philip demonstrates that he was the correct choice not only in his knowledge and skill as a surgeon, but in his humanistic approach to the patients, while Carl may be another matter in the unknown heavy baggage which he brings affects how he does his job. In Philip wanting to help Carl in being his friend, Philip risks his own position at the hospital and threatens his relationships with both the Benson-Grays in the process.