Sir Lancelot Sprat, surgeon and patriot, is finding that his faith in the British National Health Service is taking a bit of a battering - especially when the ceiling of his operating theatre collapses. It had already been a bad day-a call from Nairobi, a disagreement with Miss MacNish over the breakfast haddock, and a visit from Sir Lione! Sir Lancelot's single-handed battle to save St Sepulchre's Hospital from closure creates a hilarious tale, complicated by two ex-students and three ladies only too willing to satisfy a widower's sexual desires.