While the world anxiously awaits the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Valerie treats a pregnant Somali woman who has undergone female genital circumcision. The Nonnatus Team arrange for her to go into hospital, but she responds by going into hiding, and the situation is complicated further when it emerges that the woman's younger sister will soon go through the same process. Sister Mary Cynthia's depression is treated with electro convulsive therapy for depression, which she hopes will restore her faith.