It is while he is on this black mood that he meets Eileen again - they knew one another when he was acting as consultant surgeon in the Midlands, before Hilary's time.  He is introduced to Hilary, and behaves coldly, almost rudely. 

 

Then David comes back and is delighted to find Bob there, though a little puzzled by Anne's absence.  Finally Bob manages to talk to him alone, and the truth comes out.  He and Anne were happier than ever, and she was expecting a baby - and then there was a car crash ... Both she and the unborn child were killed instantly.

 

This is why he has come back to the Midlands; to get away from a home in London which has now become unbearable, to get back to the place where he finally managed to come to terms with his life, once before ... To try and make some sense of the situation.  Last year he salvaged his marriage, he regained his sight, and his career - and what was it all for?

 

Now it seems, nothing at all.

Finally , at the bottom rung of the Motel ladder, three women also try to sort out their lives ... Three very different characters.

 

Annie Farrant and Nora Bowen are two daily cleaners; Annie with a desperate genteel pride, and an out-of-work husband, Nora, with a husband who's a boozer, living from hand to mouth, and making the best of it.  They don't get along too well, and are always scoring petty little triumphs over one another, and yet, when the chips are down, and Annie is in despair, not knowing where to turn for money - it's loud-mouthed Nora who helps out with some of her prize money from a winning Bingo ticket.  It's an old but true saying:

 

"There's nowt so queer as folk."