Having sacked his Parliamentary Private Secretary, Urquhart casts about for a replacement. At the suggestion of Geoffrey Booza Pitt he gives serious consideration to backbench MP Claire Carlsen, despite the fact that she is carrying on an affair with Foreign Secretary Tom Makepeace. Claire is clearly playing both sides of the fence to ensure her own place in the hierarchy, regardless of what the future may hold. Urquhart decides the time has come to shake things up and forces Makepeace to resign, something his wife Elizabeth isn't sure is in their best interest. He also continues working on his legacies, dropping a good word in the ear of the British judge on the Cyprus boundary panel. Meanwhile, a young Greek-Cypriot woman, Maria Passolides, seeks Urquhart's assistance in solving the death of two uncles who were killed in Cyprus in the 1950s.