The doctor is able to slip Dorota for a at least a few minutes, long enough to get into his apartment and to see a note from his housekeeper that says she repotted the cactus and received some response “from the advert.” So apparently he was circling some kind of advertisement. But then the door rings and he does something funny — he takes the picture of his late wife and two children and turns it over so a visitor wouldn’t be able to see. I wonder if this is some kind of Polish custom.

Dorota comes barreling into the place, the doctor informing her that he took the other stairwell, and she sits down on the couch and starts smoking. She then hears from the kitchen the doctor proclaiming that it is ok for her to smoke. The doctor is preparing pots to boil water. As he comes in and sits down he asks her what she does for hot water and she says she does the same.

He looks more like a priest than a doctor at this point and he starts the conversation by saying that he really does not know what will happen to her husband, that we know nothing of the cause (of cancer) and little more of the effect. Dorota then begins to tell her story, why this is so important to her. She says that she has a good marriage. The doctor says that he has seen the couple together and would agree.

But before she could get into the story, she prods again for some kind of answer, saying that the Americans tell a prognosis (she's probably seen this on television.) The doctor somewhat agrees, that they tell when the news is good, but not necessarily when it is bad. She says that she can take any answer. Dorota then says tell me if he's going to die. I want to do everything I can for him.

The doctor responds that all she can do is wait. This prompts Dorota to finally spill the beans. She asks if she can have time to explain her problem and he assents. Dorota says that she could not have children until this time. But she met a man and has become pregnant. The fetus is nearly three months and it is probably her only chance to have a child. If her husband lives, she cannot have the child.

Then she lays out the true dilemma. The man who she became pregnant with is special to her. She then proclaims that she just happens to be in love with two men at the same time and asks if he understand this. Instead of answering, the doctor deflects by telling her something close to what she wants to hear, that her husband has roughly a 15 percent chance of recovery. But he adds that this is not definitive, he has seen people in worse shape fully recover.

She doesn't have any place to keep her ashes and has been knocking them off into her matches case, which causes a small flare up. She stands up and walks towards the door. But then she turns back to say that she receives security and support from her husband. From the baby's father … and here she chokes up and can't articulate. She adds that it is probably selfish of her to want everything ... in this case, what she probably means to say is that she loves this other man more deeply.

Dorota then asks the doctor if he believes in God. The doctor -- keeping to the form of the series -- answers in a complex way, saying that he has a private God, that there's only enough of Him for the doctor himself. Derota says he should ask that God for absolution. She then leaves. The doctor puts his head in his hands, stands up and covers his parakeet so it can sleep, then walks over to the picture of his wife and two girls, looks at it for a moment, then sets it back down -- facing front now -- on the table.