Sandy is in the outer office fixing Jean something to drink. Vikki emerges from Jean's office and Sandy asks her how the interview went. "She picked so many holes in me I feel like an old cardigan." Before the interview Sandy must have told her that Jean was a nice person. The woman thinks Sandy was mistaken. Sandy says she'll have a word later. The women says no, thanks -- suddenly being unemployed has its compensations. Sandy says she'll meet her for lunch in about an hour. Vikki tells her if she doesn't show up, she'll look for her in the job center.

Sandy brings Jean her cup of tea along with some papers to sign. She tells her that Vikki said she'd rather work for Genghis Khan. Jean didn't know he ran a secretarial agency. Sandy thinks that just because Lionel doesn't want to move into Jean's home, that should not be reason to keep them apart. Jean thinks her private life is none of Sandy's business. Sandy thinks Jean should pick up the phone and call him. Jean is very cold and curt. Sandy leaves before Jean can throw her out.

Judith walks into the waiting room just as Sandy leaves Jean's office. They exchange observations on Jean's state of mind. Judith is thinking of joining the Foreign Legion. Although she dreads it, Judith goes into her office. Jean immediately tries to pick a fight with her, commenting about how nice it was for her to drop in so late. Before it can develop further, the phone rings. It's Aunt Penny. Judith says "no, I'm not just struggling thru, I'm really fine." Jean doesn't want to talk and she clearly tells Judith to make an excuse. She mouths the words "I'm not here", but Judith ignores her. In fact, she asks Penny if she wants to speak to her and goes out of her way to tell her that Jean wants to take the phone. Jean gives her a damn-you look and talks with Penny. She tells her that she and Lionel are both doing fine, "like a house on fire." Suddenly the connection is broken. Judith says if Jean were Pinocchio, her nose would be out the window by now. The phone rings again. Penny says it must have been the hotel switchboard. Seems she and Stephen are in London. Jean looks trapped.

Judith and Lionel are sitting in his living room. He tells her that her mother can be pretty stupid sometimes. He wants to know why she just can't tell the truth. "Like a house on fire?" he says. Judith explains that it's very hard for Jean because Penny is her father's sister and she's convinced that Jean can never find happiness. Lionel observes that she hasn't, but Judith tells him that things were going very well until this moving business came between them. He points out that he bought some cushions to soften up the place. For her part, Judith informs him that her mother threw out half her things in order to make room for him. Draw. What, he wants to know, do you actually want me to do? She tells him to "just help her." He wonders if that means he should tell a pack of lies. That's one way to put it, she says. The scenario would be that Penny and her incredibly boring husband show up at Jean's that night and find Jean and Lionel billing and cooing. She tells him that Jean doesn't even know she went to talk with Lionel. She's asking him. He accuses her of being disarming. He knows that for this to work she needs his cooperation. He's reluctant to give it. He tells Judith that they think he's a psychiatrist. She knows, but he continues to try to get it off his chest. All I said was I didn't want to talk about my book, next thing I'm a psychiatrist. She knows. What if I don't do it? he wants to know. Judith tells him that Jean will tell more lies. He breaks down. "Tell her I'll be there." Judith gives him a kiss on the forehead.

Sandy and Vikki are sitting at an outdoor cafe having lunch. Vikki tells her she thinks it's surprising that Sandy even gets a lunch hour. Sandy explains that Vikki just caught Jean on a bad day is all. Jean comes walking down the street. Vikki sees her and tells Sandy that Genghis is coming to get her. Jean nearly passes them by, but sees them and approaches. She tells Vikki that she won't even attempt to excuse her behaviour because it were inexcusable, but she would like to do what she should have done in the first place and put her on their books if that was okay with her. Vikki says she is agreeable. Sandy tells Vikki she told her Jean was a nice person, which provokes quite a stare from her. Jean starts to walk away but she wonders if someone sprained their ankle whether or not they'd be admitted to a hospital. Vikki thinks she might be talking about medical insurance, but Jean says it's just a general question. Maybe a broken ankle would require hospitalization. Yes, of course, Jean says, as though a light bulb went off in her head. She seems pleased and walks away. They laugh because Jean appears to be acting so strangely.

Judith is trying to hail a cab in the rain. It passes her by. Alistair pulls up and asks if he can give her a lift. He gives her a phony story about how he happened to be there, but the truth is that he was on the way to Gatwick airport and there she was. He's going on a business trip and asks Judith to go with him. She really has no reason not to go, if you don't count her job, which she mentions to him. He tells her not to be dull. He says he can make quick work of his client and have plenty of time left to spend with Judith if she comes along. She offers some minor resistance, but in the end she's tempted and agrees to go. She feels she's earned it that day. She's got to tell Jean, so he offers her a telephone. Judith calls and Jean runs downstairs to answer the phone, praying that it's Penny calling to say she's not coming that night. Instead, she listens to Judith on the answering machine. Judith tells her that she tried to call her at the office, but that Sandy said she went home. She's going with Alistair and when she gets to the part about Lionel, she says there's no need to worry because...the connection is lost. Jean picks up the telephone to try to talk with Judith, but there's no-one there. Apparently Alistair doesn't charge his batteries on a regular basis.

Lionel is in a bookstore looking for a book on psychiatry -- preferably something with about 10 pages. He says he needs to bone up on the subject quickly because he's supposed to be one. The man doesn't understand and Lionel tells him it's a long story. The man is speaking with Lionel very careful so as not to excite him. He wonders if this has been going on long. Far too long, says Lionel, who tells the man that he wouldn't believe him if he told him why. "You're not going to, are you Sir?" says the man. Lionel says he'll just bluff. Lionel asks him, as an aside, if he's sold many copies of "My Life in Kenya" by Lionel Hardcastle. One or two, the man tells him. Lionel smiles and says "I'm a big game hunter on the cover of that." The clerk says "of course."

At Jean's home the doorbell rings. She takes a deep breath, says "here we go" and walks to the door to let Penny and Stephen inside. The first thing she does is comment on how "drawn" Jean looks. Next, of course, she bursts her way inside looking for that lovely man. Stephen walks in, kisses her and tells her he doesn't think she looks drawn at all. Jean appreciates that. Penny wants to know where Lionel is hiding. He's not there, she says. Penny wants to know where he is. Jean sits down on the couch and begins with "well, to tell you the truth..." Penny is afraid she's going to tell her something terribly sad. "Poor Jean," she says. This immediately forces Jean into telling the lie. He's broken his ankle and is in the hospital. They've admitted him overnight. They're going to be in town for several nights and Penny wonders when they'll get a chance to see Lionel. Just then the doorbell rings. Jean tells them to fix themselves some drinks.

Jean is surprised to find Lionel at the front door. She wants to know what he's doing there. "Flying in the face of reason," is his answer. Didn't Judith tell her he was coming? At first she says no, but remembers that Judith tried to leave a message on the machine and then it went peculiar. He assumes they'll be doing the same. She says she is in rather deep. Lionel says they should pursue the fiction that two heads are better than one. She thanks him for coming and he tells her to thank Judith. Just before he walks in the living room she tells him he's broken an ankle -- she had to explain his absence. Couldn't she just have said he'd gone out of the country? Well, why go for the obvious, he figures. Just limp, she tells him. Which leg? he wants to know -- she doesn't know, just limp. Penny is delighted to see Lionel. Jean supports him as he limps into the living room. Penny asks if he should be on crutches. Jean tells her that he left them at the hospital, which just released him. Turned out that it wasn't broken -- just a sprain. Penny makes Stephen get out of Lionel's chair so Lionel can sit down. Jean puts a cushion on the coffee table. "Put your foot up love," she says. "Thanks, love," he says. He pats her butt as she bends up from having placed the cushion. She gives him a startled look. "Drink, love"? Lionel says he thinks he'll have one. Jean holds up a glass to show them -- "Lionel's glass." "Ahwww," coos Penny. Penny thinks heads will roll at the hospital, no doubt -- after all, Lionel must have some sort of clout and to admit him with a fracture and then to say it's only a sprain seems to have an air of malpractice to it. Jean assures them that Lionel is not a vindictive man. In fact, he's too soft-hearted sometimes. Lionel most certainly agrees with that. Penny believes that psychiatry is a fascinating subject. She wants to know if Lionel is Jungian. Lionel appears about ready to tell her the truth when Jean leaps up off the couch and says she has a class that evening that she just forgot about. Penny is disappointed -- when will they have a chance to spend time together? Lionel says, that of course they'd like to, but... At this point they are nearly free of them, but Jean manages to interrupt Lionel and tell Penny that they could all do something "tomorrow." Lionel looks absolutely stunned, as he has so many times before.

Penny and Stephen take the cue to leave. Penny and Jean are at the door and she takes the opportunity to again tell Jean that she looks drawn. She hollers for Stephen to stop bumbling about and she walks away. Stephen follows shortly after and tells Jean he knows that it's a fearful cheek, but he wonders if she thinks Lionel would mind if he saw him privately. Jean says "of course not." On his way out he says "I'll pay the fee, of course." Jean seems puzzled at first: "fee?" He walks back and tells her he meant privately and professionally. He leaves.

Now she's done it. She walks back into the room very timidly. Lionel says he knew he was going to start the evening as a psychiatrist but now everything seems to have mushroomed and they're in the middle of a lot of lies. He tells her they were "home and dry" and then she promptly fixed them up for another evening. Why? She doesn't know. She tells him she'll understand if he wants to get out of it. "How 'bout a broken neck this time?" he says. She tells him that she knows it's not fair, particularly since she's asking him to sustain the biggest lie of all -- that the two of them are close, when they can't even commit to living together. He tells her that that's just geographical. He's missed her all week. She's missed him as well. She says she wants to take him out to dinner because he showed up on her doorstep like a white knight. She'll either take him somewhere very "monster" (as Alistair might say) or they can go somewhere cheap and cheerful. He votes for somewhere cheap and cheerful (and close by because he doesn't have to walk too far on that ankle.) They are about to leave the living room when Jean hesitates. "Lionel," she starts. She thinks about it for a minute and says "I'll tell you tomorrow." He wants to know if she means at breakfast. She melts. For a moment, anyway, it's over. They hug.

The next morning Lionel and Jean are at Lionel's flat, just walking in the door. He says "No." She says "Please." He tells her she can follow him around on her knees all day if she wants to, but he not going to treat Stephen. Jean tells him she has a girlfriend who has been seeing a psychiatrist and all he ever does his listen and say "I see." She can hardly get a peep out of him, she says. Well, he's not going to see Stephen for a year. He doesn't want to mess with Stephen's mind. She tells him that there isn't too much to mess with. He wants to know if she lied and said he was a surgeon whether she'd ever ask him to remove Stephen's appendix. She thinks he should give her credit for having a little common sense. The bell rings. Jean announces that that would be Stephen -- while Lionel was in the bath she made an appointment for 10 a.m. Lionel is wide-eyed. That is the most unfair thing, he says that anyone has ever done to him. She's very scared, but she lets Stephen in. He tells Lionel that it is very good of him to see him. Lionel tells him to go into the living room and he'll be in in a minute. Jean looks apprehensive. Stephen pops out and asks them if she's just had a session with Lionel. She says "yes." Jean says she'll see him tonight and tries to kiss him, but he avoids it. He looks scared and tells her she can't do this. She says "please, Lionel please, please" as the door closes.

Lionel walks back into his living room and is nearly speechless when he finds Stephen stretched out on his couch. "This is where you want me, isn't it?" says Stephen. It'll do, Lionel tells him, resigned. Stephen tells him how relaxing it is, almost like being at home. "I see," says Lionel. Stephen asks him what he said. Lionel repeats it. Stephen wants to know if it's significant. Stephen says he's going to go directly to it like a bull in a china shop. Lionel says "I see." He's starting to have sexual fantasies about his dental nurse. Lionel's eyes widen again. This is really more than he wants to hear. Stephen says he would never betray Penny, of course, because they're very fond of one another in their own funny way. Time passes. He's still talking. These thoughts are all in his head. "I suppose they would be, really," he quite correctly observes. The other day they were molding some dentures, when he started to have a fantasy about her. He asks Lionel if he thinks he's some kind of pervert. Lionel has had it. He gets out of the chair and says "I am not a psychiatrist." Stephen says, "what?" Lionel repeats it slowly. Stephen thinks about it. "I am not a psychiatrist," he says. And then, "of course, I see what you're saying." He thinks that Lionel is absolutely brilliant because he's rejecting all handles. He's saying he's not a psychiatrist, he's someone who listens. And what it means to Stephen is he's not a pervert, he's a man who's having the odd flight of fantasy. It puts things into proportion for him. "I see," says Lionel. Stephen thinks that if Lionel is not at the very top of his profession then he'd like to know who is. He thanks him for working his wonders and asks if he'll send a bill. Lionel tells him to "have this one on me." He leaves, still amazed by Lionel's brilliance and tells him he'll see him that evening.

Jean and Lionel walk into the living room of her home later that day. She asks him when he's setting up in practice. Tomorrow, he tells her, if he can guarantee that every patient is as dotty as Stephen. She tells him he's been very good about all this. Not really, he says. He cracked -- he told Stephen the truth and Stephen didn't believe him. Jean says they've only got one more evening to go. Yes, but Lionel has no idea what other lies they'll get themselves into given enough time -- "Will I be a part-time trapeze artist, will you be a missionary in the Congo?" He's bothered that that the only reason for this foolishness is that Jean's afraid to tell her sister-in-law that she loved Lionel long before she met her brother." The doorbell rings. Stephen and Penny arrive and walk to the living room. Penny apologizes because they're late -- Stephen got stuck at a seminar on dental hygiene. Penny says that Jean can call her nosy, but she wants to know if she and Lionel are living together. Jean starts to tell her that they are, but she stops before she can lie. No, we're not. She tells her they didn't meet on the dodg'ems. They met 38 years ago, before she met David -- and they fell in love. Penny wants to know if they had an affair all the while she was married to her brother. Jean tells her the truth, that they lost touch and thought they'd never see one another again. Stephen says "so you actually met on the dodg'ems 38 years ago?" Apparently Stephen has forgotten the conversation he had with Lionel about this very matter back at his home in Hampshire. Penny doesn't understand why Jean had to lie. She's not a monster, after all. Jean tells her it was stupid. Lionel tells her it wasn't stupid, that she didn't want to tell David because she thought it would hurt him. And so she never told you, he says to Penny. Jean tells her that after David's death Penny was so sure she wouldn't survive and that she wasn't adequate and she got so tired of being "poor Jean" and then Penny met Lionel and Jean thought, she was tired of protecting Penny with information about her happiness and now she'll just "show her just how happy I am." "But you're not," says Penny. Jean says no, not at the moment.

She says she's been a complete fool. Lionel says that applies to both of them. "That's why I decided to move in .... if that's all right." Jean looks so happy and tells him that, of course, it's all right. Penny's confused. Stephen says he's not confused. Well, never mind, they're just about to leave for dinner. Penny goes to powder her nose and get an aspirin. In the meantime, Jean can't resist the urge to ask Stephen why he's not confused. He explains that for all those years Penny thought of David as unmatchable, but he wasn't. Now that she's met Lionel, she can be free of this notion. He credits it to their convincing fiction of having met 38 years ago. He detects Lionel's professional acumen in this. Lionel swears it's the truth. Next thing, says Stephen, Lionel will be telling him he's not a psychiatrist. He leaves the room because Penny is hollering for him again. Jean and Lionel look at one another and conclude that it's best to just leave that one alone.