This Was a Man opens with a shot being fired but who pulled the trigger and who lives and who dies? In Whitehall Giles Barrington discovers the truth about his wife Karin from the Cabinet Secretary. Harry Clifton sets out to write his magnum opus while his wife Emma receives an unexpected call from Margaret Thatcher offering her a job. Sebastian Clifton becomes chairman of Farthings Kaufman bank but only after Hakim Bishara resigns. Meanwhile Lady Virginia is about to flee the country to avoid her creditors when the Duchess of Hertford dies and she sees another opportunity to clear her debts. In a devastating twist tragedy engulfs the Clifton family when one of them receives a shocking diagnosis.