As Dr. Aziz prepares to leave, Kate wants to secure his secrecy about the disease afflicting the sheep. But her efforts are interrupted when Jill's father and brother unexpectedly visit and Shane returns with plans of his own for Jill.
Rival vet James Campbell threatens to expose Kate for not reporting the sheep's illness unless she sells him her practice. With Larry's help, Jill hatches a plan to thwart him, but will Kate go along with it?
As a government-sponsored drought relief workshop comes to town, Jill begins to realize there are more problems in rain shadow country than meet the eye--or than a downpour could solve.
Kate persuades Jill to help her perform highly illegal surgery on a local man who has plenty of money, no visible means of support, and an unexplained, life-threatening gunshot wound to the chest.
When a visiting agronomist arrives on a study tour of dry-land farming, Kate fears he will submit a report on the condition of the local sheep. Or if he doesn't, she is afraid that Jill--increasingly reluctant to play by "Paringa rules"--will.
Rookie vet Jill Blake arrives in Paringa to a brusque reception from her new boss, Dr. Kate McDonald, but Jill is intrigued by the older woman's past and her reasons for staying in this dying district.
