The Doctor’s Dilemma

Colleagues rush to Harley Street to congratulate Ridgeon on his knighthood for claiming a cure for tuberculosis. The scene underscores his rising status despite medical skepticism of the era. It sets up the tension between scientific reputation and the ethical ambiguities to come.

Jennifer Dubedat waits in the hall, hoping Ridgeon will treat her husband Louis. She is taken by his beauty and charm, while Ridgeon is drawn to her presence. She clings to the belief in his supposed cure and appeals for help.

That night, Ridgeon hosts a celebration dinner to introduce Louis and Jennifer to his circle. He warns that his clinic can only handle ten patients and that treatment will be long and costly. The dinner doubles as a social test for the quartet, not merely a party.

Louis is presented as handsome and persuasive, but reveals himself as a feckless liar, thief, and seducer. A waitress recognises him as her vanished husband, hinting at a shadowy past. The contrast sharpens Ridgeon’s suspicions about his true character.

Ridgeon arranges with colleagues to visit Louis's studio to assess the case. The examination aims to determine if the TB is treatable and whether Louis's symptoms are as he claims. The scrutiny begins to erode Ridgeon’s earlier sympathy toward Louis.

During the assessment, Ridgeon realises Louis's TB is far advanced and unlikely to respond to his methods. He passes Louis on to a colleague and decides to take Blenkinsop as his own patient instead. Jennifer sees this as treachery and a betrayal of trust.

To Jennifer, Ridgeon’s decision feels like betrayal. She begins to hate him for turning away Louis and for the implication that her future with him depends on tragedy. Ridgeon, calculating, even hopes she might marry him once she is a widow.

Louis dies after a final, moving speech about love and beauty surpassing conventional morality. He begs Jennifer not to mourn but to find happiness with another man. The death reframes the ethical stakes of Ridgeon’s choice and of medical ambition.

In the postscript, Ridgeon attends Louis's one-man exhibition, where the paintings are selling well and drawing attention. The exhibit casts Louis as a serious artist whose work outlives the man and his deceptions. Ridgeon's professional world and Louis’s artistic legacy intersect on the gallery floor.

Jennifer refuses to let Ridgeon buy a painting and leaves the gallery with her new husband. The act signals her rejection of Ridgeon’s calculated devotion and her determination to choose her own future. The ending ties love, art, and morality into a final, bittersweet decision.