Back in Parliament, Phineas begins to rebuild his influence, but his party rival Mr. Bonteen attacks his political loyalty by recalling the earlier occasion when Phineas followed his conscience rather than the party line, and the hostility grows more personal as the journalist Quintus Slide joins in the campaign against him. At the same time Madame Max Goesler again becomes closely involved in Phineas's life, while the death of the old Duke of Omnium creates unexpected questions of inheritance and the romance between Gerard Maule and Adelaide Palliser remains threatened by their lack of money and position. As political and private conflicts increasingly overlap, Phineas realizes that the hostility surrounding him is becoming more dangerous than ordinary parliamentary rivalry, and the “first thunderbolt” marks the beginning of a much more serious crisis.
