James arrives in Darrowby and waits at Skeldale House for his job interview with veterinarian Siegfried Farnon.

Siegfried takes James along on farm visits to test his skills and then offers him the assistant position.

James euthanizes a local lord's horse with a twisted bowel as his first solo case, over the farm manager's objections.

Tristan Farnon arrives at Skeldale House having just failed two of his veterinary examinations.

James tuberculin tests a herd of Galloway cows and realizes he is happier as a vet than he would be in any office.

James meets Mrs. Pumphrey's pampered Pekingese Tricki Woo and is welcomed as 'Uncle Herriot,' receiving generous gifts in return.

After Tristan loses the practice receipt book, Siegfried hires the formidably efficient Miss Harbottle as the practice secretary.

Tricki Woo becomes dangerously overweight and ill; James hospitalizes him at Skeldale House to run and play with Siegfried's dogs.

James meets Helen Alderson for the first time at Heston Grange and they bond easily over their shared love of Yorkshire.

James joins the local music society to be near Helen and finally works up the nerve to ask her on a date.

James takes Helen on a date to the grandest hotel north of London; a series of disasters destroys his confidence completely.

Helen brings a dog with a dislocated hip to the surgery; they work together successfully and James asks her for another date.

Siegfried tells James it is high time he got married; James proposes to Helen and she accepts.

James assists at a calving on the Alderson farm, then tells Mr. Alderson he wants to marry Helen and receives a quiet blessing.

James and Helen spend their honeymoon tuberculin testing cows in the Dales; Siegfried makes James a full partner in the practice.

James arrives in Yorkshire as a newly qualified vet and is hired as Siegfried Farnon's assistant, beginning his struggle to prove himself in a skeptical rural community. He navigates his eccentric boss, befriends Siegfried's student brother Tristan, and slowly builds professional confidence through a series of demanding farm cases. A highlight of his new life is becoming the beloved 'Uncle Herriot' to Mrs. Pumphrey's pampered Pekingese Tricki Woo, whose owner showers the practice with lavish gifts. James's emotional life shifts when he meets farmer's daughter Helen Alderson and falls in love, though his self-doubt makes the courtship awkward and painful. After a disastrous first date and a more hopeful second encounter, Siegfried's direct encouragement prompts James to propose—which Helen accepts. Their marriage unites everything James has come to love, and they spend their honeymoon tuberculin testing cows in the Dales while Siegfried makes James a full partner in the practice.

James Herriot's career and courtship from first day to marriage.

James delivers a live breech calf in freezing conditions but is still unfavorably compared to a more experienced vet.

Siegfried gives James contradictory advice about availability, scolding him both for offering round-the-clock service and for not going out at night.

Tristan makes repeated late-night prank calls to James, pretending to be a farmer with a veterinary emergency.

James gets revenge by phoning the practice to fake an emergency with the everted uterus he and Tristan had just replaced.

James drives the Bellerby family to a performance of the Messiah but their relaxed sense of time forces him to arrive embarrassingly late.

James euthanizes Mr. Dean's cancer-stricken dog and refuses to charge; the grieving owner thanks him with a long-treasured cigar.

Under Tristan's unenthusiastic care, the practice hens produce no eggs and escape constantly; once given away, they immediately begin laying.

Tristan accidentally allows the practice pigs to bolt through the gate and rampage through the local marketplace.

James drinks champagne at Mrs. Pumphrey's elegant party, then is called out that same night to a freezing farm to tend a pig.

Mr. Cranford demands James certify a false lightning-strike cause of death; James refuses; Tristan accidentally mails Cranford a tin of cow dung.

James rushes out to assist a late-night foaling without dressing and is mocked by everyone on the farm for his pajamas.

Terry Watson stays up all night stripping infection from his cow's teat; James returns the next morning to find the mastitis completely gone.

Dick Rudd's Dairy Shorthorn develops an abscess; James performs risky surgery that succeeds; a grateful Rudd invites him to the family anniversary party.

Tristan takes James out dancing to cheer him up; both get very drunk and James falls down a muddy hill in front of Helen.

James's second date with Helen is derailed by interruptions and embarrassments, but Helen's casual mention of 'next time' reassures him she still wants to meet.

The book opens with James already at work in Yorkshire, struggling through a difficult breech calving while being unfavorably compared to another vet, establishing the challenge he faces as an outsider trying to earn respect. His early months are filled with small battles—learning to endure Siegfried's contradictory advice, surviving Tristan's practical jokes, and navigating the quirks of Yorkshire farmers and their animals. Animal stories range from the heartbreaking euthanasia of an old man's beloved dog to the slapstick chaos of pigs stampeding through the local marketplace and hens refusing to produce a single egg under Tristan's indifferent supervision. As James grows more settled, encounters with clients like Terry Watson and Dick Rudd reveal both the limits of veterinary medicine and the fierce devotion Yorkshire farmers have for their animals. James's romantic life is equally bumpy, including a humiliating scene where Helen spots him mud-covered and drunk after a night out with Tristan. But Helen's quiet mention of 'next time' at the end of their second disastrous date assures James that their relationship still has a future.

Supporting stories, Tristan's misadventures, and James's growing sense of belonging.

Siegfried arrives at the wrong farm for a postmortem and terrifies the family by enthusiastically sharpening a carving knife with no explanation.

Siegfried borrows the Austin while drunk, drives at reckless speeds on and off roads, then scolds James when the car needs oil again.

Tristan loses the practice receipt book, causing farmers who have already paid to receive furious duplicate bills.

A student-age James lets a horse bite down hard on his shoulder after meddling with an animal he is wholly unprepared for.

James wears Angus Grier's full-body rubber calving suit on a farm visit and becomes a source of great entertainment for all the workers.

Siegfried performs surgery on a cow with a wire in her stomach; spraying rumen fluid ruins his coat and instruments, but the operation succeeds.

James realizes that Grier's female client was never calling about a dog with a bone—the visit was cover for Grier's secret affair.

Tristan drives Siegfried's new Rover when a car overtaking a milk truck sideswipes it and rips both left-side doors clean off.

James's tuberculin testing day goes badly wrong across four farms and ends with him accidentally palpating the herd's bull.

Elderly Miss Stubbs, confined to bed, asks James whether animals have souls; he assures her that her animals will go wherever she goes.

The Sidlows rupture their bull's gullet trying to dislodge a stuck potato themselves, leaving James no choice but to call the butcher.

James stitches a racehorse's knee and receives a winning betting tip but loses the winnings when a Sidlow cow swallows his thermometer.

A pony with severe laminitis recovers almost instantly after Siegfried performs old-fashioned bloodletting, leaving James scientifically baffled by the result.

Visiting a wealthy family and a poor farming family on the same day, James concludes he would choose the poorer but more loving household.

Siegfried impresses the judges for a racetrack vet position, then disappears to drink with an old friend for two hours and loses the job.

This pool captures the moments that shift James's understanding of the people and world around him, beginning with Siegfried's spectacular hypocrisy and total obliviousness to his own eccentricities. James's professional education includes learning not to meddle with animals he is unprepared for, overcoming physical fear while treating dangerous large animals, and grappling with the friction between scientific training and stubborn old-fashioned remedies. Some revelations arrive unexpectedly, like discovering that cantankerous colleague Angus Grier's seemingly innocent client call was actually concealing a secret affair. Others strike at deeper questions, as when a dying woman named Miss Stubbs asks whether animals have souls and James must answer honestly from the heart. The pool closes with a trio of telling scenes—the Sidlows' catastrophic interference with their bull, James's lost betting win, and Siegfried's self-sabotaged application for a prestigious racetrack position—each illustrating how human folly and Yorkshire's unpredictability shape the texture of daily life in the Dales.

Key revelations, turning points, and moments of self-discovery in James's first year.