Lizzie has taken refuge with the Bonteen's to escape the cruelty and profligacy of her husband. A Palliser cousin, Adelaide, is coming to stay and Marie and Glencora plot on who to pair her up with and decide on Lord Fawn. She turns out to be quite a country lass with ideas of her own on whom to be with. Her fancy, eventually, to turns the young rake Gerard Maule Phineas' personal troubles with both Kennedy and Bonteen are impeding his return the corridors of power. After an unhinged Kennedy returns to Scotland Laura and her father come back to London. Glencora's plot to move Bonteen from the top echelons of the Liberal party comes to fruition at a dinner party. This will, in the end, create more problems for Phineas.