With Helene and Graham in the throes of a passionate affair, the pastor's wife hopes to run away with her lover before her past catches up with her, especially when she mistakes the footman, Old Ian, for a hunchback in the garden. But when the doctor's wife, Hestor, overhears her husband's plans to leave with the younger woman she takes decisive action.

Meanwhile, Dorothy's scheming to disgrace Helene and stop Edmund from leaving for Fiji comes to fruition when John Whiffin arrives at the house. Armed with a tale of how his wife beat him and left him for dead, Edmund takes pity on the blind hunchback, giving Helene one heck of a surprise when she arrives home.

Terrified the truth about her identity and history is about to be revealed, Helene is horrified when Edmund encourages her to rub Whiffin's so-called magic hump in a last ditch attempt to give him an heir and keep them in Hunderby. Will the hunchback reveal the truth about his connection to the shipwreck survivor?