Part 3 Summary

The uneasy sense that something is coming to an end grips London and the whole of England in April of 1940. Within the hospital, every job is affected, from the self-important senior staff to the younger doctors and consultants to the elderly porters to the nurses and nurse trainees. Probationary Nurse Briony Tallis would like to be consoled once more by thoughts that it might not happen, but it is about to happen. The hospital has been emptying slowly and invisibly for days. Firefighting equipment has been installed. Only eight of the 20 beds in Briony's ward are occupied, but the work is harder. The trainees are calmer, more accepting.

The probationers live in constant fear of Sister Marjorie Drummond, who silently notes mistakes before exploding in fury. Briony is prone to errors of deportment and the list of picayune offenses is long. Lately, however...