James Herriot, a newly qualified vet, arrives at Skeldale House, Darrowby in Yorkshire for a job interview with Siegfried Farnon, a veterinary surgeon who is building a practice in the village. After accompanying Farnon on his rounds, where he meets the notorious Mr Biggins for the very first time, he is hired as a veterinary assistant, and accompanied by Farnon he meets some of the locals at the Darrowby pub.

The next day his very first 'official' patient is a tortoise owned by a very quiet and very small girl. At evening surgery, however, things become more serious when he treats a bull with heat-stroke, and is then called out to examine Lord Halton's favourite hunter, an extremely valuable horse who has a twisted bowel, and who James humanely destroys.