After her brother Eric's and his wife Joan's death in a car accident Peggy Tatton has to move from the farm where she has lived all her life, because according to the law the farm now belongs to Joan's son John Fraser, but when Gina comes to pick her up, she decides to stay. To stop the sale of the farm she seeks legal advice from Jackie Lambert, the niece of Eric Tatton's solicitor, but she also resorts to more drastic measures. Phil Bellamy is on the lookout for a place to stay and he rents a flat from Kenny Galloway through Claude Greengrass. A bad idea because Galloway owes somebody a lot of money. Somebody who sends a heavy, Baz, to collect it.

The police are on the lookout for stolen Russian icons which have been unloaded in or around Whitby from a fishing boat owned by Ingmar Larsen who is currently in prison for smuggling and violence. The captain of the boat claims he thought they were smuggling cigarettes and that they were ambushed by pirates just off shore. They recover one of the icons at an antique shop, and the owner tells PC Walker that he bought it from a blonde woman in her thirties. Lord Ashfordly is having a banquet for true gourmets. Vernon Scripps quite the right idea when he learns about truffles from the Italian Giovanni Viora, but he thinks the price is somewhat on the high side and decides to go looking for them himself. To find them you need a pig, but in lack one of those Alfred will have to do. And then of course you also need a truffle...