Anthony Mottram lives with his dominant mother, but the quiet bachelor has his sights on a beautiful woman called Sandra and to afford dating her he is selling off four old maps from his late father's collection to Greengrass without his mother's knowledge. Oscar Blaketon is not pleased to find out that Ray Nixon, an old acquaintance of both him and the police, has checked in at the Aidensfield Arms. When Blaketon was still sergeant he promised Nixon a reduced sentence if he would turn queen's evidence against his accomplices in a robbery, but the judge saw it otherwise and gave Nixon a full sentence. Blaketon thinks Nixon will be out for revenge, but Nixon says his only in Aidensfield because of his old girlfriend Wendy.