The tailor Frank Hodgson wakes up when a red car smashes through the window of his shop at the middle of the night, but he only manages to see how it backs out again and disappears. Mike and Jackie are barely home from their honeymoon when Mike begins to suspect that she is seeing another man, Sean Banks, Banks is stopped for speeding in a car which matches the description of the one that smashed through Frank Hodgson's window and he mentions her as an alibi. Greengrass has lost his old friend Silas Moorcroft, who suddenly had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital. But there will be no funeral because Moorcroft has donated his body to medical science. Of course Greengrass has a perfect solution to that.

Christmas time is near. Somebody has been decimating Lord Ashfordly's population of deer, and for once Greengrass is not a suspect. As a matter of fact he agrees to help the police by posing as a potential buyer to smoke the poachers out. He is also occupied by his latest idea, a driving school - using Bernie Scripps's hearse. Jackie is handling a divorce case for Julia Kendall and she wants the police to enforce a restraining order against her husband Frank. Her daughter Katie misses her father and still visits him almost every day hoping her parents will get back together again. Maggie is in charge of the annual Christmas concert and she wants Katie Kendall to sing at the concert. A good idea because the young girl has the voice of an angel.

PC Bradley investigates a break-in at Agnes Moorcroft's guest house, but the only thing missing is the last page of entries in her guest book. Somebody seems to be very interested in her guests Sue Dixon and her daughter Tracey. Bradley thinks it may be her estranged husband, but the attractive Mrs. Dixon also has a big, dark secret in her life. The new health food shop in Ashfordly is desperate for goat's milk and Vernon Scripps is just the man to supply it. Business is booming and soon there are customers - and goats - all over Aidensfield. Especially goats. They turn out to be regular four-legged Harry Houdinis.