- Marjorie is totally in her element this night; she's hosting a dinner.
- The dinner guest includes Heather and James, the Renfrews' old friends, and Markham and his wife, Jan.
- Markham and Renfrew sneak away after a few and talk business. Markham tells Renfrew that he knows Peterson's boss from back in the day and gave him a call. Sneaky.
- While having drinks outside on the terrace, Marjorie chats with Markham and notices he's a different type of scientist than her husband.
- Markham's mind is always darting this way and that, but he's personable. Renfrew, on the other hand, is focused on his experiments and bottles his emotions up in his lab.
- During dinner, the party discusses how hard some types of food are to come by and how electricity rationing will affect the coronation celebration, hinting that the ecological problems of North Africa and South America are having far-reaching effects.
- The telephone rings. It's Peterson informing Renfrew that he thinks he got what they need or, at least, part of it.
- Renfrew tells Markham. Marjorie wonders if they aren't making too big a deal of this; after all, history has been a series of crises and mankind has survived so far.