It is June 1897 and Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebration will be held in a few days, on the 22nd. The Thrift plans a party, but Eleanor is far more excited by the prospect of Finn O'Neill's return from America, so that they can at long last formalise their engagement. When he arrives, however, he brings with him something that Eleanor neither expects nor is pleased about. However, at the Thrift there is worse to contend with when a battered wife and her injured husband are both admitted and, as a result, a murder occurs.