Vigil in the Night 1940

In Great Britain, Anne Lee takes the blame for a fatal error made by her sister—also a nurse, but at Anne’s insistence—and is forced to leave the hospital where they both work. She moves to Hepperton, where she finds a post at another hospital that is chronically underfunded and understaffed due to the tightfisted attitude of its chairman, the wealthy businessman Matthew Bowley. While there, in the gallery, she witnesses a troubling moment during a procedure on Bowley and speaks up about a swab that was left inside the patient. She is reprimanded by her supervisor, the Matron East; yet the hospital’s esteemed doctor checks and confirms she was right. Later, Anne and Matron East are involved in a bus accident; the nearest physician is the doctor, and he is impressed by her conduct. The accident leads to a blossoming acquaintance, and Anne earns a promotion that signals her growing influence in Hepperton’s struggling medical community.

Bowley himself becomes attracted to her and offers her a position as his personal nurse, a move that stirs the jealousy of his wife, Mrs. Martha Bowley. Faced with pressure, Matron East has no choice but to permit Anne to resign. The opportunity takes Anne away from Hepperton, and she travels to London, where her now-married sister, Lucy, has left her husband, Joe Shand, while working as a nurse at a fashionable rest home. In this new setting, trouble soon follows: a famous actress under Lucy’s care commits suicide, and both the rest home’s proprietor and the doctor who prescribed narcotics face the threat of negligent-homicide charges. Dr. Prescott undertakes an investigation and uncovers a shady history linking the rest home’s owner with the narcotics-prescribing physician; Lucy is ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

A devastating epidemic then ravages Hepperton, testing the hospital’s resources and staff to the limit. Anne and Lucy rush back to help, while Prescott travels to Bowley to seek funds to fight the outbreak. Bowley refuses to raise money, and Prescott finds he cannot do it alone. Undeterred, Anne takes the initiative and authorises purchases to open a new isolation ward, sending the bills to Bowley. Bowley erupts in anger, but his stance softens when his wife informs him that their young son has fallen ill with the disease. Lucy stays by the boy through the night and, though the child recovers, Lucy contracts the illness herself. Before she dies, she tells Anne that she had informed their former hospital that she was responsible for the earlier fatality. In the end, Bowley’s gratitude deepens, and he unveils plans for hospital improvements that exceed Prescott’s hopes, recognizing the vital role Anne and Lucy played in the fight against the outbreak.