The episode opens at what once was a private school, outside the town of
Marbury. Two traders, called Miller and Macintosh are doing business with the leader of the settlement at the school. He is a young boy named 'Eagle' - the entire population of the settlement is made up of children. The traders are sworn to secrecy about the existence of the place.Greg and Agnes are heading for Marbury on horseback. They pass an old lady, who is in the front garden of her cottage. She complains of being raided by red indians, who
have stolen her cabbages.
Greg goes off to investigate while Agnes stays with the woman - she is called Mrs Butterworth, and is a little eccentric. Miller & Macintosh come by, and kindly donate some of the woman's stolen cabbages & chickens back to her to make up for the ones she'd lost!
Greg reaches the school, where he falls rather easily into a trap, and is left strung up from a tree by his ankles while the kids decide what to do with
him. The kids see him as a threat - many of them are runaways from other settlements, and do not want to live under adult rules.
Jen arrives in the area, having been told that Greg was heading there by the people he'd previously visited in Lincolnshire. As Charles had not been very keen on following immediately, she had set out without telling him, so is alone. She gets directed to Miller & Macintoshs' warehouse. They rather fancy her, so to
keep her in the area deny knowledge of Greg, although Agnes had mentioned him back at Mrs Butterworth's cottage.
Back at the school, Eagle has problems. There is an illness running through the children in the settlement - kids are going blind and deaf, and their limbs are being attacked by gangrene. Eagle wants to take the kids' minds off the illness by keeping them occupied - this is why he has organised raids into the surrounding countryside. He
decides that it would make a good diversion if they staged a man-hunt. He takes Greg's boots and gun, and tells him he has a two-minute start. He then starts to count down from 100. Greg muses on the low standard education had reached pre-plague as he runs barefoot into the surrounding trees.
Greg manages to avoid his pursuers, but comes across a boy in the trees who is obviously very ill. As he stops to help him the kids catch up with him. He
offers to help them. Eagle shows him the sick bay. There are 13 children down with the illness, one, a young girl called Libby is very sick, and has already lost some fingers to gangrene. Greg send for Agnes & Mrs Butterworth, who come to the school. They decide to stay overnight.
Jen arrives back at the traders' warehouse that evening after a fruitless search for Greg. They tell her that they had in fact remembered hearing about Greg, and
worry her by telling her they thought that he & Agnes were 'together'. Jen sets off to Mrs Butterworth's cottage in search of Agnes. When she arrives the cottage is empty, so she settles down there for the night.
Eagle is keeping a vigil at Libby's bedside overnight. She is obviously past help, and Greg offers to take over from him. He smothers her with a pillow to put her out of her misery. It turns out that she is Eagle's sister - he
realises what Greg has done, and is grateful. Agnes and Mrs B go off in search of medical supplies for the kids, therefore missing Jen at the cottage.
Greg realises that the illness must be to do with the children's' diet. They make their own bread, from rye supplied by the traders. He remembers a case pre-plague, where a village had been affected by a disease caused by a fungus breeding on rye stored wet. He makes all of the affected kids
march around banging tins and singing - a la Pied Piper - he believes the rhythms will help ease their convulsions. It has the desired effect.
Greg hauls the traders back to the school. They are made to work for the kids as punishment for supplying second rate rye. Jen returns to their empty warehouse and decides to give up the search. As she gallops along the horizon on her way back to Lincolnshire, Greg catches a glimpse of her - the thinks
the distant traveller seems familiar, but soon she has disappeared out of sight.
