There has been a break-in at the county council office. At first it seems that nothing but petty cash was taken, but then it is discovered that an adoption file is missing. When the child of that file is abducted suspicion falls on its biological mother Sandie Eliot. Only the abducted child is not hers! Greengrass reports a murder. One of his homing pigeons has been killed by a peregrine falcon, and when the police will have nothing to do with it he and his fellow members of the local pigeon fanciers association decide to take matters in their own hands.

PC Crane and PC Bellamy give chase to a couple of hooligans in a car. When they pass the bus stop in Aidensfield Paul Dibley is teased by a school friend and runs right smack into the side of Bellamy's passing police car. He suffers only a broken leg and some bruises, but his father Don wants PC Bellamy prosecuted. Paul's sister Tracey has just started as a maid at Ashfordly Hall when it is discovered that she is pregnant. Understandably she is afraid to tell her father especially since the father of the baby is her cousin Lenny. To make things worse Tracey gets a crush on PC Crane and names him as the father instead when her parents find out about her pregnancy.