Alison is trying to recover from the trauma of the night before, when she believes she was visited by Robert's sprit. Assuming he must be dead and feeling increasingly desperate for information, she tries to track him down and ends up at the local hospital. There, Alison discovers that Robert has collapsed and is in the intensive care unit, his heart having stopped momentarily the night before, precisely at the time she was visited by his spirit. She is stunned to learn that he has been suffering from a brain tumour, and when she finally sees Robert he is in a coma, hooked up to a bank of machines, with his wife Jude at his side. Alison backs away - desperate, helpless, and very much alone. As she walks through the deserted corridors of the hospital Alison sees the figure of the Night Nurse, a ghostly messenger of death who accompanies the dying on their journey from life. Desperate not to lose Robert, she confronts the doctors who are talking to Jude about the possibility of having to switch off Robert's life support. Pitching her spiritual standpoint against the medical orthodoxy, she tells Jude that if Robert were dead in spirit, she would know. United in their desperation to keep Robert with them the two women form an uneasy alliance, holding a joint vigil at Robert's bedside. After Jude has gone, the Night Nurse appears at Robert's side as if she has now come to take him away. In a desperate and final attempt to save Robert, Alison offers her own life in place of his.
