Sister Ulrica tries to talk Dorothy out of aborting the baby: she says that its either that or she will kill herself. Verna and Miss Hasan arrange for her to have an abortion next day, but then they find out that the new district commander is coming to visit and shove them all in a storeroom for the procedure. The new commander turns out to be the newly promoted Major Yamauchi, who expresses displeasure at the camp hierarchy and replaces Nakamura with Sato, now a lieutenant. When the priest visits again and Sister Ulrica tells him she helped Dorothy get rid of her baby, he arranges for her to leave the camp and continue her imprisonment at a convent. Leaving, she tells Bea that she knew how to be a nun but she didn't know how to be a woman until she met them all.

31 MARCH 1943: Marion asks Yamauchi about Christina and the other women from the first camp; next day, Christina and Blanche are returned to join their friends. Bea is crestfallen that they have sent Blanche back and not Nellie. Blanche finds out about Debbie's death and blames Rose for telling the guards about their escape. She teams up with the irrepressible Joss to put one over on the guards. The women learn that some of them are to be repatriated (ie sent home) and Lillian gets her hopes up that she and Bobby will be on the list. When the list comes in, they aren't on it but Dr Trier is. Christina is contacted by the underground, and passes on the news that Rose's boyfriend Bernard and Kate's fiance Tom are both alive and at the nearby men's camp.

22 APRIL 1943: With Christina's help, Rose and Bernard arrange to sneak out of their camps and meet up in the jungle on the night of the Emperor's Birthday, when the guards will be busy at a party. Blanche goes with Rose to act as escort to the meeting place. Rose and Bernard meet and decide to get married when the war is over and they are free. Back at the camp, Kate and Marion learn of the meeting just as the guards do too. Sato orders them all into the jungle to find Rose and Bernard: the women watch them leave and are horrified when shots ring out into the night... Meanwhile, Christina decides she doesn't want to be courier for the underground any more. Joss and Blanche make plans against the guards and Lillian continues to obsess about Bobby's health. Dr Trier is repatriated, leaving Bea in charge of the infirmary. Kate considers becoming a doctor after the war.

30 APRIL 1943: The internees suffer severe punishments following Rose's escape. She is brought back to the camp alive, but shot in the back; Bernard was killed at the scene. Bea and Kate operate on Rose to remove the bullet and all of the women provide items for them to use in the surgery, even Verna. When Rose wakes up, she is paralysed from the waist down. Yamauchi and Miss Hasan try to find out how she kept in contact with Bernard. Blanche finds it hard to visit Rose after the shooting. Shinya tells Dorothy that one of the women informed on Rose and everyone suspects Christina of being responsible. She is put before the disciplinary committee and gets back a Not Proven verdict. Marion catches Lillian giving Bobby unusual food items and realises she was the informer, to get extra food for Bobby.

12 MAY 1943: Lillian and Bobby are transferred to another camp by Yamauchi following Marion's request, when the other women and children bully them both and refuse to have anything else to do with them. The effects of Rose's shooting still reverberate around the camp: Dorothy cuts all ties with Shinya when she learns it was him who shot Rose. Two months pass and Rose is still hanging on to life, but has lost the will to live. She tries to go on a hunger strike, earning the wrath of Miss Hasan, and later asks Bea to put her out of her misery. Next morning, Bea announces that Rose has died in her sleep but whether she helped her die or not is never revealed.

3 SEPTEMBER 1943: Conditions continue to worsen inside the camp, not helped any by a drought and an increased work load. Marion's diary is burned by the guards. The prisoners discover that Red Cross Parcels have been sent to the camp but not given to the women - Verna tells them they were kept from them in the aftermath of Rose's escape but Marion works out that was a lie and realises the contents of the parcels have been sold on to them by Verna. Dorothy forgives Shinya for shooting Rose as he prepares to leave for the front. Next day, an allied plane bombs the camp while trying to bomb Yamauchi's headquarters, killing Miss Hasan and Shinya and seriously wounding Daisy and Sato. Led by Blanche, the women takes advantage of the incident to raid the storerooms and steal the Red Cross parcels. Yamauchi shows up in the middle of it all and orders them to stop.

20 AUGUST 1945: Marion stops Maggie and her mob from attacking Sato and stops Kate taking down the Japanese flag. She explains to the women how things will work now. Yamauchi reveals the wealth of stores hidden away from the women, to their horror. Kate, with Maggie in tow, goes AWOL for a few hours to see Tom at the men's camp but they are stopped en route and warned not to continue by a male POW, who tells them it is too dangerous just yet. Maggie and the POW have sex in a truck. But next day, Yamauchi arranges for the women to visit the men's camp. 19 SEPTEMBER 1945: A bunch of Australian soldiers finally arrive at the camp and are horrified by what they find. The women are told they will be leaving for Singapore next day. Alice is mistaken for a boy by the soldiers. Sato kills himself, watched by Dorothy and Joss. The next morning, Yamauchi bids Marion farewell and apologises for everything. Watched by Yamauchi, the women leave the camp for freedom.

The women start being questioned by the military to give evidence against Yamauchi and co for war crimes: Bea flips out, Mrs Van Meyer tells lots of lies and Maggie gives emotional testimony about Blanche's death. Joss is arrested by the police for being with Christina's uncle. Clifford tells Marion that Yamauchi is in Singapore. Stephen announces he is staying in Singapore to run a center; he wants Joss to come back and help him run it. Marion refuses to testify against Yamauchi; so do Christina, who goes to visit him, and Sister Ulrica. Everyone begins doubting things they said and did in the camps, including Sister Ulrica and Mrs Van Meyer.

Kate is distraught when Tom dies and seeks comfort from Sister Ulrica, who comes to the funeral even though Tom was a protestant. Kate also decides she definitely wants to become a doctor. Marion visits Yamauci in prison, with Jake's help in pulling strings. He tells her he knew about her diary and let Christina steal the paper for it. She apologises that it will be used to prosecute him. He tells her that he would rather die than go to prison - it is the more honourable way out. Bea has to explain the facts of life to Alice after a boy gets a little too friendly with her. Maggie realises that she is pregnant. Clifford and Marion fight over her visiting Yamauchi and she says she doesn't know if they have a future together.

The women all prepare to leave Singapore to go back home, agreeing to have a reunion at Raffles in 1950, exactly five years after they separate. Joss dies in hospital. Bea agrees to stay on in Singapore and help Stephen run the centre. Sister Ulrica goes to visit Yamauchi, who tells her he knows he will be hanged. Maggie agrees to go and stay with Dorothy in London. Everyone reminisces about absent friends: Joss, Rose, Blanche and all the others who died, and then say their goodbyes as they all go their separate ways. Marion realises the experience is finally over as she sails for home.