The artist Joe Vaughan has rented a cottage from Lord Ashfordly to do some painting. He has had a bit of a clash with members of the local rugby club and they do what they can to annoy him. A Liverpool gangster, Boyd, is also interested in him and he has sent two goons to do the dirty job. His benefactor Rod Dundas organizes an exhibition at the cottage, but the night after the opening the cottage burns and all Vaughan's paintings are destroyed. Well not all of them, since one of them is missing. Greengrass gets a grant from the council for his new "romantic boarding house" and can soon greet his first guests. His old friend Betty persuades him to buy a share of the race horse Alnwick Flyer, which must be sold for tax reasons. There is something about Gina's boyfriend Andy that Oscar Blaketon does not like and he starts to follow Andy around like a shadow.

It comes as quite a shock to Carol Cassidy, who is an orphan, when one of her childhood friends turns up in Aidensfield claiming that she not only has found Carol's mother, but brought her along too. Barbara Gresham is a young, single mother of a new-born baby. She has been abandoned by the father of the baby and finds it hard to cope with her life. Nurse Cassidy and PC Mason tries to help her, but maybe in vain. Hermione Worthington reports her dog Hercules missing and Sergeant Miller promises her that the police will make every effort to find it. But finding chief constable Worthington's dog is a lot easier said than done. Bernie Scripps has received a car full of chimney sweep equipment as payment for a funeral, and since the village is in dire need of a chimney sweep David borrows the van and equipment to earn enough money to have his taxi repaired and he and Dawn tries their luck with chimney sweeping. That too is easier said than done.