Months have passed since the dramas surrounding Tulkinghorn's death, in the final instalment of the Charles Dickens adaptation. Ada worries that a desperately ill Richard will not live to see the child they are expecting. Esther is forced to turn down the heartfelt advances of Woodcourt, and Smallweed makes a discovery that leads to the sudden conclusion of the long-running Jarndyce case - but the result shocks everyone concerned.